Analysis of a novel spin platform height measurement method based on 3D SAR imaging

In the field of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging, imaging platform is usually in a linear motion; SAR imaging and platform´s height measurement are separated. However, the real platforms, such as spin platform, are in complex movement. For these problems, imaging feasibility of a novel spin platform 3D SAR imaging is researched and this imaging result is used to measure platform´s height. Firstly, the antenna phase center´s trajectory is equal to the planar array antenna. Since using this equivalence to establish a new 3D imaging model, not only the distortion due to platform spin is overcome, but also ground shadow problem of 2D SAR is solved. Furthermore, the center of scene´s elevation can be used to measure platform´s height, this is a new idea for platform´s height measurement. In this paper, the ambiguous function is deduced to prove the imaging feasibility of this model. The results of simulation validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.