High resolution 3D “snapshot” ISAR imaging and featureextraction

We have developed a new formulation for three dimensional (3D) radar imaging of inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) data based on recent developments in high resolution spectral estimation theory. Typically for non real-time applications, image formation is a two step process consisting of motion determination and image generation. The technique presented focuses on this latter process, and assumes the motion of the target is known. The new technique offers several advantages over conventional techniques which are based on the correlation imaging function. In particular, the technique provides for a direct 3D estimate (versus back projection to a 3D target grid matrix) of the locations of the dominant scattering centers using only a minimum set of independent 2D range-Doppler ISAR “snapshots” of the target. Because of the snapshot nature of the technique, it is particularly applicable to 3D imaging of sectors of sparse-angle data, for which the sidelobes of the correlation imaging integral become high. Furthermore, the technique provides for an estimate of amplitude and phase of each scattering center as a function of aspect angle to the target, for those aspect angles which encompass the set of 2D range-Doppler snapshots. Results illustrating the technique developed are presented for both simulated and static range data     

Some Effects of Hard Limiting in Adaptive Antenna Systems

Adaptive antennas are often implemented with the Applebaum-Howells-type adaptive processor usually include a hard limiter between each antenna port and its correlation mixer, primarily for dynamic range compression. Brennan and Reed [3] analyzed the effects of hard limiting, and their conclusions suggest that it does not degrade the steady-state performance of the adaptive processor. Standard and hard-limited processors are compared and it is shown that when the two types of processor have the same sensitivity threshold, the hard-limited one can fail to provide sufficient interference cancellation when the correlation matrix of input signals has two or more eigenvalues of differing magnitudes. The consequence of hard limiting is that (depending on the processor design parameters) the larger of two or more signals can capture the hard limiter, allowing the smaller signals to pass through the processor essentially unattenuated. It is also shown that when a hard-limited processor is designed to provide the same cancellation as a standard one, it must have essentially as large a dynamic range as the standard, processor; therefore, it offers no advantage of dynamic range compression. Moreover, the hard-limited processor lacks a constant sensitivity threshold, which can be a desirable feature of a standard processor. Specific examples are presented for identical-element array antennas and for multiple-beam antennas.