Fast Time-Domain Imaging in Elliptical Polar Coordinate for General Bistatic VHF/UHF Ultra-Wideband SAR With Arbitrary Motion

In this paper, a fast time-domain imaging algorithm called bistatic fast factorized back projection algorithm (BFFBPA) is proposed for the general bistatic VHF/UHF ultra-wideband synthetic aperture radar. It cannot only accurately dispose the large spatial variant range cell migrations, serious range-azimuth coupling and complicated motion error, but also achieve the imaging efficiency similar to frequency-domain algorithms. It represents subimages in elliptical polar coordinate to reduce the computational load. The imaging geometry with arbitrary motion in this coordinate system is provided, and the bistatic back projection algorithm (BPA) is derived to provide a basis for the proposed BFFBPA. Considering motion errors, the more accurate sampling requirements for elliptical subimages is deduced to offer the near-optimum tradeoff between the imaging quality and efficiency, and the constraint of motion errors for acceptable sampling requirements is discussed. Based on this sampling requirement, the advantage of using elliptical subimage grids for this BFFBPA is analyzed. A phase error correction is performed to reduce the impact of phase errors caused by interpolations in the BFFBPA. The speed-up factor of this BFFBPA with respect to the bistatic BPA is derived. Simulation results and evaluations are given to prove the correctness of the theory analysis and validity of the proposed method.