Integrated sidelobe energy reduction technique using optimalpolyphase codes

For the distributed targets arising in most synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, it is the integrated sidelobe (ISL) energy rather than the peak sidelobe level (PSL) that governs the performance of the pulse compression processing. A sidelobe cancellation technique is suggested which reduces the ISL energy by eliminating a significant portion of the sidelobe pattern of the pulse compression output, while the PSL is presented at the optimal Barker-code level. The efficiency of this ISL reduction is proportional to the signal code length     

契比雪夫加权应用被动合成孔径处理算法研究

提出了将契比雪夫加权应用于被动合成孔径处理算法。被动合成孔径技术对小孔径基阵沿直线运动接收到的信号进行合成处理,从而达到虚拟大孔径基阵方位分辨力效果。将契比雪夫加权应用于线阵合成孔径前后波束图的指向性研究,对主瓣宽度变化予以合理解释。理论分析结合仿真验证表明,被动合成孔径处理算法应用契比雪夫加权可以在给定的旁瓣高度要求下获得等旁瓣级,等旁瓣级下可提高对弱目标信号的检测分辨能力。     

On angular resolution in microwave radar

The large dynamic range required to obtain stable microwave images causes angular resolution to be a function of the sidelobe level. It is particularly significant in synthetic aperture radar. It is shown that a modest tapering of the synthetic aperture offers a dramatic potential improvement.     

Enhanced resolution in Sar/ISAR imaging using iterative sidelobe apodization.

Resolution enhancement techniques in radar imaging have attracted considerable interest in recent years. In this work, we develop an iterative sidelobe apodization technique and investigate its applications to synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and inverse SAR (ISAR) image processing. A modified noninteger Nyquist spatially variant apodization (SVA) formulation is proposed, which is applicable to direct iterative image sidelobe apodization without using computationally intensive upsampling interpolation. A refined iterative sidelobe apodization procedure is then developed for image-resolution enhancement. Examples using this technique demonstrate enhanced image resolution in various applications, including airborne SAR imaging, image processing for three-dimensional interferometric ISAR imaging, and foliage-penetration ultrawideband SAR image processing.     

Generalization of spatially variant apodization to nonintegerNyquist sampling rates

Spatially variant apodization (SVA) is reformulated for use on synthetic aperture radar imagery with an arbitrary sampling rate. The algorithm is implemented as a spatially varying three-point finite impulse response filter, and constraints on the filter parameters are developed from physically motivated concepts. By varying the parameters of the filter, the sidelobe energy is reduced with no effective loss of resolution. The procedure produces an output comparable to that of the integer Nyquist version of SVA, and effectively eliminates sidelobe artifacts with no loss of mainlobe resolution.     

空间变迹法在合成孔径声呐成像处理中的应用

空间变迹法（SVA）作为一种超分辨率图像处理技术,能在抑制旁瓣的同时保持良好的主瓣分辨率。将空间变迹法引入合成孔径声呐（SAS）成像,比传统的加窗处理能获得更好的成像效果。对标准空间变迹法进行了推广,得到非标准奈奎斯特采样率下的通用算法,并应用于SAS成像处理。仿真结果表明,二维通用算法在任意奈奎斯特采样倍数时．均能在不增加主瓣宽度的同时得到良好的旁瓣抑制效果,提升了SAS成像分辨率。     

Doppler frequency estimation and the Cramer-Rao bound

Addresses the problem of Doppler frequency estimation in the presence of speckle and receiver noise. An ultimate accuracy bound for Doppler frequency estimation is derived from the Cramer-Rao inequality. It is shown that estimates based on the correlation of the signal power spectra with an arbitrary weighting function are approximately Gaussian-distributed. Their variance is derived in terms of the weighting function. It is shown that a special case of a correlation-based estimator is a maximum-likelihood estimator that reaches the Cramer-Rao bound. These general results are applied to the problem of Doppler centroid estimation from SAR (synthetic aperture radar) data     

Rate allocation for spotlight SAR phase history data compression

Complex phase history data in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems require extensive processing before useful images can be obtained. In spotlight mode SAR systems, useful images can be obtained by applying aperture weighting and inverse Fourier transform operations to SAR phase history data. In this paper, we are concerned with the compression of the complex phase history data obtained by a spotlight SAR system. We exploit knowledge of the aperture weighting function along with Fourier transform processing to attach a "gain" factor to each complex phase history data sample. This gain factor is then used to efficiently allocate bits to the phase history data during quantization. Performance evaluations are presented for this compression system relative to other existing SAR phase history data compression systems.     

Spatially variant apodization for squinted synthetic aperture radar images.

Spatially variant apodization (SVA) is a nonlinear sidelobe reduction technique that improves sidelobe level and preserves resolution at the same time. This method implements a bidimensional finite impulse response filter with adaptive taps depending on image information. Some papers that have been previously published analyze SVA at the Nyquist rate or at higher rates focused on strip synthetic aperture radar (SAR). This paper shows that traditional SVA techniques are useless when the sensor operates with a squint angle. The reasons for this behaviour are analyzed, and a new implementation that largely improves the results is presented. The algorithm is applied to simulated SAR images in order to demonstrate the good quality achieved along with efficient computation.     

Unsupervised segmentation of polarimetric SAR data using thecovariance matrix

A method for unsupervised segmentation of polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data into classes of homogeneous microwave polarimetric backscatter characteristics is presented. Classes of polarimetric backscatter are selected on the basis of a multidimensional fuzzy clustering of the logarithm of the parameters composing the polarimetric covariance matrix. The clustering procedure uses both polarimetric amplitude and phase information, is adapted to the presence of image speckle, and does not require an arbitrary weighting of the different polarimetric channels; it also provides a partitioning of each data sample used for clustering into multiple clusters. Given the classes of polarimetric backscatter, the entire image is classified using a maximum a posteriori polarimetric classifier. Four-look polarimetric SAR complex data of lava flows and of sea ice acquired by the NASA/JPL airborne polarimetric radar (AIRSAR) are segmented using this technique     

Three-dimensional interferometric ISAR imaging for targetscattering diagnosis and modeling

Two-dimensional (2-D) inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging has been widely used in target scattering diagnosis, modeling and target identification. A major shortcoming is that a 2-D ISAR image cannot provide information on the relative altitude of each scattering center on the target. In this paper, we present an interferometric inverse synthetic aperture radar (IF-ISAR) image processing technique for three-dimensional (3-D) target altitude image formation. The 2-D ISAR images are obtained from the signature data acquired as a function of frequency and azimuthal angle. A 3-D IF-ISAR altitude image can then be derived from two 2-D images reconstructed from the measurements by antennas at different altitudes. 3-D altitude image formation examples from both indoor and outdoor test range data are demonstrated on complex radar targets.     

Resolution of the ocean wave propagation direction in SAR imagery

There is an inherent 180° ambiguity in the derived wave propagation direction when using conventional spectral analysis techniques on standard synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image products. Three different techniques are successfully used to resolve this ambiguity in propagation direction using a single pass of airborne SAR data. The fact that the SAR is characterized by a large time-bandwidth product is used to advantage. A sequence of individual looks extracted from the Doppler spectrum represents images of the scene collected at a sequence of discretely delayed intervals of time. The techniques utilized include cross-correlation-based motion analysis of a pair of looks, phase weighting based upon a pair of looks and the ocean wave dispersion relation, and a three-dimensional spectral analysis. The phase weighting technique is also demonstrated for a Seasat SAR scene     

Critical range evaluation using a diagonal flat plate

A novel technique is presented to image stray signals in RCS measurement ranges. In this technique, the scattered fields of a flat plate in the diagonal plane are measured in a range for various frequencies and look angles. The scattered field data are then processed to generate an inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) image of the diagonal flat plate. It is shown that scattering mechanisms associated with various stray signals can be identified by using the ISAR image. This leads to better understanding of the range and possible chamber improvements. Scattering mechanisms as small as 90 dB below the plate broadside scattered field level have been observed in the image domain due to the high directivity and low sidelobe characteristics associated with the diagonal flat plate backscattered fields. The results obtained from evaluating the two compact range facilities at the Ohio State University ElectroScience Laboratory are presented to illustrate the virtues of the range evaluation technique     

A Fast and Accurate Far-Field Pseudopolar Format Radar Imaging Algorithm

A novel imaging algorithm to be used under the condition of having an image scene in the far field of a linear radar aperture is presented. This is an application scenario that is drastically different from those of spaceborne and airborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems, which has not been properly addressed to date. The technique is particularly tailored for a stepped-frequency continuous wave (CW) or frequency-modulated CW radar. The radar aperture must be linear and can be formed either with a physical or synthetic array. With the suggested method, the radar reflectivity of the image scene is obtained through an interpolation-free series expansion, where only 2-D fast Fourier transforms of the frequency-domain backscatter data are required. The resulting image is sampled on a “polarlike” or pseudopolar grid, which is introduced to simplify the formulation. The main advantages of this method are its extremely low computational cost and the high accuracy of the resulting imagery. The technique is extensively validated both with numerical simulations and two ground-based SAR data sets. Last but not least, numerical simulations show that this technique can be used with an ultrawideband radar of 1 GHz of bandwidth.      

浅地层探地雷达自动目标检测与定位研究

该文提出了一种基于图像熵变化及窗口能量检测的探地雷达自动目标检测与定位方法,该方法首先通过探地雷达未经合成孔径处理的图像与经合成孔径处理后的图像之间的熵变化来检测目标,再通过在合成孔径图像中进行窗口能量检测来判断目标所在的位置。通过对实测数据的处理,结果表明该方法取得了较好的效果。     

Microwave holographic imaging method with improved resolution

A multifrequency holographic microwave imaging method with high resolving capability in both azimuth and range directions, is described. The method incorporates a synthetic aperture approach in pulse radar systems, originally designed for the pulse-echo imaging, in order to improve azimuth resolution. The imaging technique places no constraint on the waveform of a transmitted signal in use and allows the three-dimensional imaging. This paper develops 1) the general formula, which describes the relation between the transmitted and received signals, based on Kirchhoff diffraction theory, 2) a test function, which is the kernel of a linear operation for producing object images from received signals, and 3) a filter design technique for compressing the durations and suppressing the sidelobe levels of received signals. Numerical image reconstructions are presented for demonstrating high resolution capability of the method.     

ISAR 系统相位失真的一种校正方法

(ISAR)主要应用于雷达静止不动而目标运动的场景,能够获得高分辨的二维图像。ISAR 系统比较 大的幅相失真会造成散焦等情况,从而使成像模糊,因此有必要对系统的幅相失真进行补偿以提高成像质量。文中给出某ISAR系统相位失真的一种实际校正办法。该系统带内相位原来800度左右的起伏,跟踪空间站时距离门内主副瓣比≤20 dB,经过该方法校正后带内相位达到≤5毅的水平,距离门内主副瓣比达到≤28 dB 的水平。     

SAR辐射定标的融合算法研究

针对机载SAR辐射定标外场试验可重复性较差的问题,提出了一种结合内场仿真信息进行辐射定标的参数估计新算法:首先建立机载SAR定标成像模型,在进行模型有效性检验之后,利用定标成像模型得到SAR线性动态范围内定标体RCS的渐进经验分布,然后结合定标试验实测数据进行辐射定标参数的融合估计。仿真表明该算法可以减小估计结果的误差方差,提高定标精度。     

高效率低旁瓣天线口面场分布函数研究

在赋形双反射面天线中,口面场分布函数对天线电气性能起到至关重要的作用。口面场分布函数妆接影响天线的增益和近角旁瓣。在传统卫星通信地面站中,要求天线第一旁瓣电平在-14dB以下,口面利用率在90%左右,而射电天文望远镜要求天线第一旁瓣电平小于-20dB,口面利用率要求在85%以上。研究并给出了一种整个口面能量均匀分布而外边缘低锥销的口面场分布函数,可以满足高增益,低旁瓣的要求。     

基于泰勒分布线阵特殊旁瓣技术的研究

提出了基于泰勒加权分布线阵特殊旁瓣要求的设计方法,其波束图是由给定的旁瓣级要求来设计的泰勒分布波束图,在实际需要的特殊旁瓣要求上,设计满足了要求的最窄波束宽度波束图。给出了相应的参数设计,并证明该设计能在要求的最大旁瓣级上获得最大阵增益。借助计算机对线阵进行波束图设计。结果表明,使用该方法设计的波束图能满足特殊旁瓣要求和最大阵增益。