Linear Minimum Variance Estimation with Complex Phase Errors

The linear minimum variance estimator of a random signal, received multiplied by a complex Gaussian phase error and added to random noise, is investigated. The results apply to the propagation of images through the turbulent atmosphere, fading channels, and synthetic-aperture radar. Among others, a result is that the multiplicative error can be replaced by an additive error, usually white. The best signal modulation is found in two important special cases.     

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.     

Dynamic Targets in CRRs Part II: Experiments and SAR Correspondence

Expressions describing the correspondence between moving-target artifacts for synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) and compact radar range (CRR) emulations are developed. Experimental results are then presented to verify the accuracy of these equations and to characterize the capacity of CRRs to emulate translating, vibrating, and rotating targets. We show that phase-compensation techniques can be applied to CRR data, providing a suitable test bed for SAR phase-compensation techniques.     

一种MIMO雷达幅相误差估计方法

 针对单基地相关多输入多输出(MIMO)雷达中存在的阵列幅相误差问题进行了研究。给出了单基地相关MIMO雷达的阵列模型,并提出了一种MIMO雷达幅相误差估计方法。利用发射正交信号对阵列接收信号进行匹配滤波,可分离得到类似传统阵列的"虚拟阵列",利用分时信源数据将该阵列中真实导向矢量中信源波达方向(DOA)引起的相位与幅相误差分离开,通过构造代价函数得到波达方向估计值,进而分别得到发射阵与接收阵的幅相误差的估计值,同时给出了误差引入量分析。最后通过仿真验证了该方法的有效性。本文介绍的方法简单可行,适用于任意构型MIMO雷达的幅相误差估计。     

空间进动目标动态散射特性的实验研究

研制了进动目标模型,构建了紧凑场微波暗室动态测量系统,通过暗室实验的方法研究了空间进动目标的动态散射特性,给出了若干典型条件下的全极化宽带测量结果。通过实验可以观察到目标进动引起的多普勒频移,证明了微波雷达对进动目标微多普勒的可观测性,同时观察到弹头常见结构引起的非理想点散射现象。实验结果的分析表明,该实验系统能够有效地揭示进动目标的目标特性和回波调制特性,从而为弹道中段目标的动态电磁散射特性、目标结构反演、运动参数提取和逆合成孔径雷达(ISAR)成像的研究奠定了基础,对于弹道中段目标识别的研究具有重要的意义。     

Scanning Spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar with Integrated Radiometer

Spaceborne synthetic aperture radar systems are severely constrained to a narrow swath by ambiguity limitations. Here a vertically scanned-beam synthetic aperture system (SCANSAR) is proposed as a solution to this problem. The potential length of synthetic aperture must be shared between beam positions, so the along-track resolution is poorer; a direct tradeoff exists between resolution and swath width. The length of the real aperture is independently traded against the number of scanning positions. Design curves and equations are presented for spaceborne SCANSARs for altitudes between 400 and 1400 km and inner angles of incidence between 20° and 40°. When the real antenna is approximately square, it may also be used for a microwave radiometer. The combined radiometer and synthetic-aperture (RADISAR) should be useful for those applications where the poorer resolution of the radiometer is useful for some purposes, but the finer resolution of the radar is needed for others.     

Statistics of Focused and Defocused Radar Maps

Coherent high-resolution synthetic-aperture radar systems achieve their range resolution by pulse compression and azimuth resolution by compression of naturally generated FM coding due to Doppler shifts as the aircraft flies by the target. If the data is left unprocessed, it is, in effect, a defocused map of the terrain. As such, it should exhibit less dynamic range than if the data is compressed. This paper describes an experimental study to verify the above conjecture. The results of this study indicate that if dynamic range of the data link is a problem, the radar data should be transmitted in its unprocessed form. This might very well be the case for planetary mapping by means of satellites.     

Modeling and performance of HF/OTH radar target classificationsystems

The effects of a class of multipath propagation channels on the performance of a over-the-horizon (OTH) radar target classification system are considered. A Rician frequency-selective fading channel model is employed to characterize the effects of the multipath propagation medium and evaluate the performance of radar target classification systems. The performance of classification algorithms that employ relative amplitude, relative phase, and absolute amplitude measurements as features is investigated. Performance estimates of the various classification algorithms for interesting sets of channel parameters are obtained by means of Monte-Carlo simulations     

CCRS C/X-airborne synthetic aperture radar: An Rand D tool for the ERS-1 time frame

The airborne synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) system developed for the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS) is described. It consists of two radars, at C-band and X-band. Each radar incorporates the following features: dual-channel receivers and dual-polarized antennas; a high quality, 7-look, real-time processor; a sensitivity time control for range-dependent gain control; a motion-compensation system for antenna steering in azimuth and elevation; and baseband I and Q signal phase rotation. The system also uses a high-power transmitter with a low-power back-up. The SAR maps to either side of the aircraft, at high or low resolution, at incidence angles which in high resolution span 0° to 80°. Radar operating parameters, data products, key specifications and the motion compensation scheme used are presented. Properties of the real-time imagery are discussed and examples of C-band SAR data in the three operating modes are given     

Calibration of complex polarimetric SAR imagery using backscattercorrelations

A technique for calibration of multipolarization synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) imagery is described. If scatterer reciprocity and lack of correlation between co- and cross-polarized radar echoes (for azimuthally symmetric distributed targets) are assumed, the effects of signal leakage between the radar data channels can be removed without the use of known ground targets. If known targets are available, all data channels can be calibrated relative to one another and radiometrically as well. The method is verified with simulation and application to airborne SAR data     

Estimating the Doppler centroid of SAR data

After reviewing frequency-domain techniques for estimating the Doppler centroid of synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) data, the author describes a time-domain method and highlights its advantages. In particular, a nonlinear time-domain algorithm called the sign-Doppler estimator (SDE) is shown to have attractive properties. An evaluation based on an existing SEASAT processor is reported. The time-domain algorithms are shown to be extremely efficient with respect to requirements on calculations and memory, and hence they are well suited to real-time systems where the Doppler estimation is based on raw SAR data. For offline processors where the Doppler estimation is performed on processed data, which removes the problem of partial coverage of bright targets, the ΔE estimator and the CDE (correlation Doppler estimator) algorithm give similar performance. However, for nonhomogeneous scenes it is found that the nonlinear SDE algorithm, which estimates the Doppler-shift on the basis of data signs alone, gives superior performance     

脉冲雷达高仰角测量数据分析及处理对策

本文针对靶场主动段外弹道测量数据处理的弹道参数出现的异常趋势，分析了脉冲雷达高仰角跟踪目标过捷径点前后的测量数据分布规律，提出了用包络线对测角动态滞后量进行修正的方法，并经实战任务数据检验该方法是实用、有效的。     

Strapdown inertial measurement units for motion compensation forsynthetic aperture radars

It is shown that synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) motion can be compensated by using an antenna-mounted strapdown inertial measurement unit (IMU) as the motion sensing system, but sensor and system errors affect SAR image quality. A strapdown IMU consists of three accelerator channels and three gyro channels. Strapdown IMU errors include gyro-scale and accelerometer-scale factor and bias errors, velocity error, platform tilt, and errors induced by limited inertial sensor bandwidth. The effects of these errors on the SAR image quality are presented in terms of the SAR impulse response. IMU errors that cause low-frequency phase errors (less than one cycle per array time) are categorized in terms of quadratic and cubic phase errors. IMU errors that cause high-frequency phase errors (greater than one cycle per array time) are categorized in terms of the integrated sidelobe ratio and peak sidelobe ratio. A motion compensation system conceptualization is described wherein a strapdown IMU is attached to an antenna and transfer-aligns to the aircraft's master navigator     

An improved imaging algorithm for spaceborne MAPs sliding spotlight SAR with high-resolution wide-swath capability

Conventional synthetic aperture radar(SAR) systems cannot achieve both highresolution and wide-swath imaging simultaneously.This problem can be mitigated by employing multiple-azimuth-phases(MAPs) technology for spaceborne sliding spotlight SAR systems.However, traditional imaging algorithms have met challenges to process the data accurately, due to range model error, MAPs data reconstruction problem, high-order cross-coupling phase error and variation of Doppler parameters along the azimuth direction.Therefore, an improved imaging algorithm is proposed for solving the above problems.Firstly, a modified hyperbolic range equation(MHRE) is proposed by introducing a cubic term into the traditional hyperbolic range equation(THRE).And two curved orbit correction methods are derived based on the proposed range model.Then, a MAPs sliding spotlight data reconstruction method is introduced, which solves the spectral aliasing problem by a de-rotation operation.Finally, high-order cross-coupling phases and variation of Doppler parameters are analyzed and the corresponding compensation methods are proposed.Simulation results for point-target scene are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.     

Imaging of point scatterers from step-frequency ISAR data

A high-resolution method for imaging of point scatterers from step-frequency inverse synthetic-aperture radar (ISAR) data is presented. An analysis of the noise sensitivity of the method is provided to show the high performance of the method. Simulation results are given to show the robustness of the method against model errors     

Optimum Signals for Radar

The research reported herein deals with the general problem of the selection of radar waveforms. The investigation is specifically concerned with the synthesis of radar signals which are optimum in the sense that they are characterized by ambiguity surfaces minimized over certain predetermined regions of the ambiguity plane. The weighted ambiguity surface is utilized as the weighted error criterion. This error criterion is mathematically tractable and pertinent to radar system performance but is not unduly restrictive as some orientation parameters are left unspecified for subsequent cost or penalty function analysis. The signal optimization is approached by variational techniques augmented by equality and inequality constraints, for example, limiting the amount of bandwidth or frequency modulation to be less than some system requirement. Several examples are presented demonstrating the optimization techniques and providing a minimum error for the stated problem. It is shown that for any given type of amplitude modulation of the radar signal, the variance or dispersion of the ambiguity surface is not decreased for any type of phase modulation added. The optimum signal for an elliptical weighting function is derived for several cases. The minimum error is shown to depend upon the constraints and the unspecified orientation parameters and, for one case, on the second moment of the signal.     

一种超高分辨率机载聚束SAR两维自聚焦算法

受运动参数测量误差和大气扰动等因素影响,合成孔径雷达(SAR)图像通常会发生散焦,利用自聚焦对散焦的SAR图像进行后处理是一种有效的重聚焦手段。传统的自聚焦算法都只是针对方位一维相位误差的估计和补偿。随着成像分辨率的提高,自聚焦时残留距离徙动的校正成为SAR成像面临的一个新挑战。本文推导得到了极坐标格式算法处理后残留距离徙动和方位相位误差的解析表达式,分析了两者之间的内在关系,并利用该关系,提出了一种能够同时进行残留距离徙动和方位相位误差补偿的两维自聚焦算法。实测数据处理结果表明,在残留距离徙动效应不可忽略的条件下,该方法能够极大地改善原有自聚焦算法的聚焦性能。     

Phase gradient autofocus-a robust tool for high resolution SARphase correction

The phase gradient autofocus (PGA) technique for phase error correction of spotlight mode synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery is examined carefully in the context of four fundamental signal processing steps that constitute the algorithm. We demonstrate that excellent results over a wide variety of scene content, and phase error function structure are obtained if and only if all of these steps are included in the processing. Finally, we show that the computational demands of the fun PGA algorithm do not represent a large fraction of the total image formation problem, when mid to large size images are involved     

The Impact of Strong Scintillation on Space Based Radar Design II: Noncoherent Detection

Electromagnetic signals that propagate through strongly disturbed regions of the ionosphere can experience scattering which can cause significant amplitude, phase, and angle-of-arrival fluctuations. This paper considers the performance of a space based radar (SBR) that must operate through a highly disturbed propagation environment such as might occur during a barium release or after a high altitude nuclear detonation. A brief summary of the propagation channel characteristics is given in terms of quantities that are important to SBR design issues. Results are then given showing the effect of noncoherent integration on target detection performance. Both coherent and noncoherent detection performance can be seriously degraded by scintillation if scintillation is not adequately considered in the radar design.     

一种基于盲同态解卷积的SAR成像自聚焦算法

针对大气扰动及飞行平台不稳引起机载合成孔径雷达(SAR)图像散焦的问题,提出了一种新的自聚焦算法来估算运动误差。该算法是基于运动误差函数及场景散射函数平滑特性的差异来进行估计的,利用复对数变换将图像的幅度与相位信息分离,进而分别对相位及幅度信息进行处理。运动误差通常为慢变函数,而场景的散射信息具有某种随机特性。因此,经过复对数变换后,运动误差及散射信息可以通过滤波器进行分离,将相位中的随机噪声去除,从而保留了慢变的运动误差函数。为了去除噪声信息,需要建立一个平滑滤波器,利用Daubechies小波的尺度函数构造Riesz基向量,从而建立了正交子空间,通过所建立信号子空间及噪声子空间组建平滑滤波器,最终可以获得准确的运动误差。在实验部分,分别利用仿真数据及实测数据对本文方法进行验证,最终结果分析表明该方法具有很高的估计精度及执行效率。