Real-time motion compensation, image formation and image enhancement of moving targets in ISAR and SAR using S-methodbased approach

The commonly used technique for inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR)/synthetic aperture radar signal analysis is a two-dimensional Fourier transform (FT), which results in an image of the target´s reflectivity mapped onto a range and cross-range plane. However, in cases where the line-of-sight projections of the target´s point velocities change or there is uncompensated movement within the coherent integration time, the FT produces blurred images. For target recognition applications, mainly those in military surveillance and reconnaissance operations, a blurred ISAR image has to be refocused quickly so that it can be used for real-time target identification. Two standard techniques used for improvement of blurred ISAR images are motion compensation and the use of quadratic time-frequency representations. Both are computationally intensive. The authors present an effective quadratic time-frequency representation, the S-method. This approach performs better than the Fourier transform method by drastically improving images of fast manoeuvring targets and by increasing the SNR in both low and high noise environments. These advantages are a result of the S-method´s ability to automatically compensate for quadratic and all even higher-order phase terms. Thus, targets with constant acceleration will undergo full motion compensation and their point scatterers will each be localised. It should be noted that the source of the quadratic term can come not only from acceleration, but also from non-uniform rotational motion and the cosine term in wide-angle imaging. The method is also computationally simple, requiring only slight modifications to the existing FT-based algorithm. The effectiveness of the S-method is demonstrated through application to simulated and experimental data sets.