基于射线追踪的快速雷达图像仿真方法

为了解决目标识别、隐身目标设计等研究领域对雷达图像需求日益增加的问题,提出了一种基于射线追踪的快速雷达图像仿真方法。该方法利用射线追踪计算每一个射线管的散射电场及其在雷达成像平面的投影坐标,通过将所有射线管的贡献在像域进行累加得到1幅二维雷达图像。通过对不同路径射线的聚类,可实现对散射贡献的分离,从而建立目标部件与强散射源的对应关系,并对复杂目标雷达图像进行解释。给出了Slicy目标的快速雷达图像仿真与算例分析,分析结果表明:基于射线追踪的快速雷达图像仿真方法可对复杂雷达图像进行有效预测,并能对强散射源进行成因分析。

A Fast Simulation Algorithm for Radar Image Formation Based on Ray Tracing

In this paper, a fast simulation algorithm is presented for creating radar images based on ray tracing. In this method, three-dimensional models of man-made objects are illuminated by a virtual synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensor whose signal is approximated by rays sent through the model space. Rays can be followed for multiple reflections within the object scene. Shooting and bouncing ray (SBR) is adapted to calculate the contribution of each ray. By summing the contribution of each ray on the radar image plane, a radar image is obtained. By clustering rays owning different paths, echoes from different components are separated. By this way, relationship between target components and the strong scattering source can be established, and thus an effective approach can be provided to analyze the complex SAR images and target characteristics. The proposed method is implemented to calculate the radar image of the Slicy model, and the results are compared with the measured solutions. The results show that the simulation can provide very valuable information to interpret complex SAR images and to predict the strong scattering source.