A new trajectory-based Polar Format Algorithm for bistatic SAR

The interpolation-based Polar Format Algorithm (PFA) can be used in bistatic Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image processing while suffering from heavy interpolation computation load and complicated space-dependent resolution. To decrease computation load, this paper presents a nonlinear trajectory-based PFA, in which sensors are designed to fly on conical surface to avoid range interpolation. Due to this conical bistatic geometry, two advantages can be achieved. First, part of computation load can be converted to navigation system and processing speed can be improved. Second, a space-independent range resolution can be approached. A following multi-scatter simulation validates the presented approach.