A Matched-Filter-Bank-Based 3-D Imaging Algorithm for Rapidly Spinning Targets

For rapidly spinning targets, such as the rotating ground radar antenna, helicopter blades, spinning space debris, etc., the scatterers on the target may rotate for several periods in the observation time. Since the range and Doppler information of these scatterers are no longer constant, the conventional range-Doppler-based imaging algorithms are invalid. Meanwhile, 3-D imaging is necessary to obtain additional information for the spinning target. However, the available interferometric inverse synthetic radar (ISAR) and snapshot 3-D imaging algorithms do not work well since they require low target spinning speed. In this paper, a matched-filter-bank-based 3-D imaging algorithm for rapidly spinning targets is proposed, based on target motion features. This algorithm utilizes the rapidly rotating turntable model of the ISAR target instead of the slow rotating one. First, 2-D image slices of the target are obtained from the output of the matched filter bank by changing matching parameters. Then, a series of 2-D image slices are combined to form the 3-D target image. Since this algorithm applies to the monostatic radar system, it is easy to implement in practical applications. Both the theoretical derivation and the simulation results have proved the validity of the proposed algorithm.