JEM-line tracking in ISAR airborne radar data of flying aircrafts for engine detecion

Location of engines on an aircraft body is crucial for preliminary, quick discrimination of the aircraft type. Fans in jet engines are known to generate a modulation on the reflected radar wave, generating a large Doppler spread. Such spread results in multiple, iso-range detections of significant backscatter at the range location of each engine, whose frequency displacements reflect in quasi-periodic structures on an iso-range line. This paper reports on a method we have developed for detecting such lines based on their specific characteristics in order to determine the range location of aircraft engines.