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Forward-looking multichannel synthetic aperture radar (FLMC-SAR) is an important tool for modern remote sensing applications, which has the capability to reconstruct the high-resolution image of the front area. However, due to the azimuth-variant characteristics of the motion errors over a long aperture, FLMC-SAR data processing is usually a challenging task, especially when involving the motion compensation (MOCO) coupled with Doppler ambiguity resolving. To accomplish an accurate MOCO for FLMC-SAR, a novel parametric azimuth-variant MOCO approach is proposed in this article. Aiming at the coupling problem of MOCO and Doppler ambiguity resolving over the full aperture, we can decouple them through the subaperture division. As a full synthetic aperture is decomposed into several subapertures, the high-order motion errors of the full aperture can be decomposed into the first-order motion errors of the subaperture. On this basis, the mismatch of the space–time spectrum caused by the motion errors can be solved by spectral estimation, yielding Doppler ambiguity resolving for each subaperture. Meanwhile, the azimuth-variant characteristic of motion errors in FLMC-SAR system is characterized by a parametric angle-dependent quadratic phase error (QPE) model. The motion parameters are estimated by a joint multichannel angle estimation-based signal quadratic decomposition method. Immediately, the MOCO for ambiguous targets with different motion errors can be processed separately to improve the imaging performance. Experimental results based on both simulated and real data demonstrate that the proposed method is suitable for FLMC-SAR system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Randomized stepped-frequency (RSF) radar, which transmits random-frequency pulses in a coherent processing interval (CPI), has an excellent electronic counter-countermeasures (ECCM) performance and the ability to synthesize wide-frequency band with a narrow bandwidth receiver. However, due to the use of different frequency pulses, RSF waveform is incompatible with the conventional moving-target-detection (MTD) technique, which makes clutter suppression a difficult problem for RSF radar and limits its application. In this article, the effect of clutter on the coherent processing for RSF radar is first analyzed. The result shows that coherent processing can improve the signal-to-clutter ratio on target Doppler channel by $N$ (number of pulses in one CPI) times, which suppresses weak clutter scatterers to a large extent whilst strong clutter scatterers would still be left influential. Focusing on dominant clutter scatterers, the adaptive range-Doppler clutter suppression algorithm, which is based on designing clutter suppression filters with two-dimensional property to obtain the clear high-range-resolution profile of moving target in clutter environment, is then proposed for RSF radar. The proposed algorithm, which takes into account clutter Doppler extension, can be used for RSF radar coherent processing in clutter environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging is limited to achieve the high-resolution image of the side-looking areas. Nevertheless, equipped with a small size linear array across the trajectory, forward-looking multichannel SAR (FLMC-SAR) is capable of reconstructing the high-resolution image of the front area. In FLMC-SAR imaging framework, the left-right Doppler ambiguity is expected to resolve with beamforming approaches using the multichannel system diversity. However, beamforming-based Doppler ambiguity resolving is sensitive to the array deviation angle, which causes a mismatch between the azimuth angle and Doppler frequency. In this article, we propose an array deviation angle calibration and imagery algorithm for FLMC-SAR. The space–time characteristic of FLMC-SAR is explored and the range-dependent array deviation angle model is established. Following the Doppler beam sharpening imaging, strong targets are selected to derive the mismatch of the space–time characteristic. A maximum likelihood estimation of the array deviation angle is developed to modify the matching between the azimuth angle and Doppler frequency. Therefore, the left-right Doppler ambiguity can be solved correctly, yielding high-resolution FLMC-SAR imagery. Extensive simulation and real data experiments are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As more and more satellites are launched into the space, dynamic estimation of spin satellites has become a critical component of the space situation awareness application. Some explored studies using exterior measurements from different sensors such as optical device and inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) to estimate dynamic parameters of spin satellites. As a single sensor normally provides two-dimensional observation, three-dimensional estimations resulting from these algorithms are strictly related to the prior knowledge of targets characteristics. As a result, it is difficult to expand these methods to other satellites. In order to support the dynamic estimation of most spin satellites, this paper presents a novel dynamic estimation approach which employs synchronized optical-and-radar images. The optical-and-radar fusion strategy has demonstrated its superiority in image analysis field, and breaks down the dynamic estimation of spin satellites into two sub-problems: target attitude estimation and spin parameters estimation. In this work, the proposed algorithm deduces two explicit expressions of target dynamic parameters under the imaging projection model of the joint optical-and-radar observation. Through the particle swarm optimization (PSO), target dynamic parameters are determined in two stages. This paper presents some experiments illustrating the feasibility of the proposed method and subsequent conclusions, which reflect advantages of the joint optical-and-radar observation mode in image interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of the attitude and geometry of space targets with the inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) technique is a significant and difficult task. Most of the existing methods hardly consider the radar observation geometry in the determination of target attitude. This paper proposes a novel approach to estimating the three-dimensional attitude and reconstructing typical component geometry of space targets from an ISAR image sequence. The approach bridges range-Doppler images and target attitude parameters with the accommodation of target trajectory information and the ISAR geometric projection model. By exploring the shape feature within the ISAR sequence, the target attitude and the rectangular component size are estimated through solving an optimization with prior shape constraints. Comparative experiments illustrate the advantages of the proposed method in both feature association and reconstruction feasibility. Moreover, considering practical circumstances, a further analysis is made of the robustness of the proposed algorithm after the attitude estimation experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel approach to interpreting the satellite attitude based on inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) images. In the conventional viewpoint, quadratic and higher order phase terms of ISAR imagery are regarded as negative factors causing the defocusing phenomenon. In this paper, we introduce how to apply quadratic phase coefficients to estimate target attitude from the ISAR imagery. A geometric projection model of ISAR imaging is built according to radar line of sight, and an explicit expression is also derived to connect target attitude parameters and the image defocusing property. With the accommodation of Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno algorithm, spatial-variant quadratic phase coefficients together with attitude parameters are determined by an image contrast maximization. We also extend the proposed algorithm to multistatic ISAR applications, where the quadratic phase information lying in simultaneous multistatic ISAR images can be mined to enhance the performance of target attitude estimation. Experimental results illustrate the feasibility of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes a clutter suppression approach and the corresponding ground moving target imaging algorithm for hypersonic vehicle (HSV) borne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system with multiple‐input–multiple‐output (MIMO) antenna. HSV‐borne radar platforms fly with a high speed, which can lead to severe Doppler ambiguity, and the radar system usually cannot provide enough channel freedom degree for clutter suppression. In this study, an SAR ground moving target indication (GMTI) approach with MIMO antenna is presented for HSV‐borne radar. Compared with the traditional multichannel SAR GMTI methods, the proposed approach can provide more space freedom degree and obtain a wider imaging swath without decreasing pulse repetition frequency. Besides, the improved deramp space‐time adaptive processing method decreases the ambiguity times of the ground clutter and focuses the moving target. The simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]