Radar Imaging of Mercury

Earth-based radar has been one of the few, and one of the most important, sources of new information about Mercury during the three decades since the Mariner 10 encounters. The emphasis during the past 15 years has been on full-disk, dual-polarization imaging of the planet, an effort that has been facilitated by the development of novel radar techniques and by improvements in radar systems. Probably the most important result of the imaging work has been the discovery and mapping of radar-bright features at the poles. The radar scattering properties of these features, and their confinement to permanently shaded crater floors, is consistent with volume backscatter from a low-loss volatile such as clean water ice. Questions remain, however, regarding the source and long-term stability of the putative ice, which underscores the need for independent confirmation by other observational methods. Radar images of the non-polar regions have also revealed a plethora of bright features, most of which are associated with fresh craters and their ejecta. Several very large impact features, with rays and other bright ejecta spreading over distances of 1,000 km or more, have been traced to source craters with diameters of 80–125 km. Among these large rayed features are some whose relative faintness suggests that they are being observed in an intermediate stage of degradation. Less extended ray/ejecta features have been found for some of the freshest medium-size craters such as Kuiper and Degas. Much more common are smaller (<40 km diameter) fresh craters showing bright rim-rings but little or no ray structure. These smaller radar-bright craters are particularly common over the H-7 quadrangle. Diffuse areas of enhanced depolarized brightness have been found in the smooth plains, including the circum-Caloris planitiae and Tolstoj Basin. This is an interesting finding, as it is the reverse of the albedo contrast seen between the radar-dark maria and the radar-bright cratered highlands on the Moon.     

Multifrequency Imaging of Radar Turntable Data

In recent years synthetic-aperture radars (SAR) have proven to be very useful two-dimensional imaging tools in various fields. Based on the synthetic-aperture concepts, different imaging modes are possibe with various operating characteristics. We describe a special case where circular-projection radar data are coherently processed to yield both azimuth and range resoultion. Experiments are performed using data obtained from the radar target scatter site (RAT SCAT) radar cross-section facility. Fairly good results are obtained which illustrate the versatility of coherent syntheticaperture processing of pulse-to-pulse high-range-resolution radar returns. A discrete multifrequency stepped and pulsed waveform is the basic transmitted signal from which range-Doppler images are generated. The RAT SCAT turntable facility allows interesting model targets to be illuminated from which radar images can then be computed. One such application of the processing is described.     

基于步进频的雷达成像算法研究

在多目标情况下,雷达接收的信号是目标各点散射的矢量叠加,高分辨率的成像可以实现各目标的分离。用于目标成像有多种算法,本文使用基于步进频的卷积-反投影算法(B-P算法)对回波信号进行处理,得到了二维的目标像,同时在增加一根接收天线的情况下,也可以获得各散射点的高度信息。仿真结果验证了该算法的有效性。     

Synthetic Aperture Imaging Radar and Moving Targets

This paper considers the effects of slowly moving targets as they appear in the output of an airborne coherent side-looking synthetic aperture imaging radar. The image of a moving reflector is described, and two approaches to airborne moving target indication (AMTI) are summarized. It is shown that the effects of target movement are decreased as the radar scan rate is increased, and are increased as the (Doppler processed) compression ratio is increased.     

迭代收缩阈值雷达前视成像方法

针对机载多通道雷达的扫描前视成像问题,研究了利用迭代收缩阈值算法实现单个通道前视成像的方法,在此基础上提出一种扩展的多通道迭代收缩阈值算法来解决多通道前视成像问题,在理论上证明其收敛性,并给出加快收敛速度的方法。该算法首先通过对各个通道的加权叠加,获得多通道雷达最小均方误差意义下的最优解;然后利用目标的稀疏表示,获得最优解在相应稀疏约束下的稀疏解。理论分析和仿真实验表明,相对于现有扫描雷达前视成像方法,所提方法在算法稳定性、场景复原能力和噪声抑制能力等方面具有明显的优势。     

一次相消技术在雷达成像中的应用

一次相消技术是一种经典的固定点目标对消方法。本文讨论了在ISAR成像处理过程中利用一次相消技术来剔除地杂波,分析了在成像处理中的杂波相消方法,并在最后的计算机仿真中,验证了该方法的有效性,分别比较了两种成像方式、两种地杂波分布的成像结果。     

传统雷达的改进与现代雷达的发展并驾齐驱

在西方国家大力开发有源相控阵雷达的同时,传统的机械扫描雷达还大量地存在于现役战斗机中。为提高这部分空中力量的作战能力,老式雷达的技术更新也在加紧进行中     

雷达的革命

氮化镓(GaN)的出现为多功能雷达(包括通信、干扰)开辟了新的应用前景。有源阵列天线实际上已占领雷达市场,在近十年开发的新型战斗机或监视飞机上占有一席之地     

Radar nomenclature

Like much of the equipment used by the armed forces, both civil and military radar systems may be allocated an identification resolved from a synonym, mnemonic, project name, number, application notation, or specialised nomenclature and sometimes may even be based upon the whims of an intelligence reporting service. Of these, mnemonics are very popular; whilst of designation systems used by the US armed forces is probably best known, whilst the Russian system is least understood. Other well-known identification systems and schemes are those employed in Sweden, France, and the UK and are amplified in this article.     

Synthetic Aperture Radar

The general theory of side-looking synthetic aperture radar systems is developed. A simple circuit-theory model is developed; the geometry of the system determines the nature of the prefilter and the receiver (or processor) is the postfilter. The complex distributed reflectivity density appears as the input, and receiver noise is first considered as the interference which limits performance. Analysis and optimization are carried out for three performance criteria (resolution, signal-to-noise ratio, and least squares estimation of the target field). The optimum synthetic aperture length is derived in terms of the noise level and average transmitted power. Range-Doppler ambiguity limitations and optical processing are discussed briefly. The synthetic aperture concept for rotating target fields is described. It is observed that, for a physical aperture, a side-looking radar, and a rotating target field, the azimuth resolution is ?/? where ? is the change in aspect angle over which the target field is viewed, The effects of phase errors on azimuth resolution are derived in terms of the power density spectrum of the derivative of the phase errors and the performance in the absence of phase errors.     

Distributed Array Radar

Distributed array radar (DAR) is a concept for efficiently accomplishing surveillance and tracking using coherently internetted mini-radars. They form a long baseline, very thinned array and are capable of very accurate location of targets. This paper describes the DAR concept. Factors involving two-way effective gain patterns for deterministic and random DAR arrays are analyzed and discussed. An analysis of factors affecting signal-to-noise ratio is presented and key technical and performance issues are briefly summarized.     

High-Performance Weather Radar

A maser preamplifier designed into an X-band weather radar set AN/ MPS-34 increased the radar's sensitivity by 12.5 dB to an over-all 118.5 dBm. Many low-performance, obsoleted sets could be converted to a high-performance system through the inclusion of a maser. A qualitative discussion of the maser's operation is presented, and the quantitative effects of the maser low noise temperature on the radar's overall noise figure is derived. The meteorological targets not previously detectable are analyzed, and anticipated target detection is forecast.     

Radar Literature Sources

This correspondence presents information on radar literature sources to augment the International Cumulative Index on Radar Systems[1]. The purpose is to provide information on languages and translations of some technical journals and to give additional journals with sources of abstracts of engineering reports and patents on radar.     

An Experimental Radar Facility

A coherent CW superheterodyne radar system operating at frequencies of 9, 17, 35, and 70 GHz is described. The radars are installed on a free-flight range to study backscattering from wakes of hypersonic-velocity projectiles. Each radar is equipped with a focused-lens antenna oriented at an angle of approximately 45° to the flight axis. Amplitude and phase of the received signal are recorded separately. Some typical results are given to demonstrate the capabilities of the equipment.