A hybrid SAR - Model based method for high resolution imaging

This paper describes a novel fast, two-dimensional method to find the shape of a body from its scattered electric field. The method combines the information extracted from the target using the SAR formulation with a fast model-based inversion in three steps: (1) The SAR image is formed, recovering an initial estimate of the body shape; (2) The phase and amplitude of the SAR image are used to extract a set of first guess contours close to the actual position of the body under test; and (3) these contours are used as a starting point for a model-based inversion, disregarding those that do not match the body profile, and refining the others. Measurement-based results prove that the method is able to achieve resolution of less than half of a wavelength.