A quasi-parametric algorithm for synthetic aperture radar target feature extraction and imaging with angle diversity (Q1581808)

Human-made vision systems imitate the function of the eye - the sensor, and that of the brain -- the processor. Human-made vision systems are primarily built to improve the ability to resolve targets, for example radars and sonars, or to capture the image of an illuminated scenery. Radar is an important sensor technology because it provides an all-weather, day/night capability to not only detect and locate remote objects, but to generate a spatial, visual representation, that is an image, of the radar reflectivity of an illuminated scenery. A radar system has all-weather capability because microwave radiation propagates through clouds and rain with only limited attenuation. A radar system has day/night capability because it supplies its own illumination. Nearly 50 years have passed since C. A. Wiley first observed that a side-looking radar system can improve its azimuth resolution by utilizing the Doppler spread of the echo signal. His landmark observation that the key to better vision is a larger radar antenna aperture signified the birth of a technology now referred to as synthetic aperture radar (SAR). The SAR technique is one of the most advanced engineering developments of the twentieth century, and therefore deserves much more attention in the field of applied mathematics. The radar motion forms a prerequisite of the SAR technique: SAR is an airborne or satellite-borne radar system that provides high-resolution maps of remote targets on a terrain, a planet, \(\ldots\) For a stationary radar and a rotating target, the term inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) is used. The principal idea behind SAR is to synthesize the effect of a large-aperture physical radar system whose physical radar antenna construction is infeasible [\textit{E. N. Leith}, Synthetic aperture radar. In: Optical Data Processing, D. Casasent (ed.), Springer Verlag, Topics in Applied Physics, Vol. 23, 89-117 (1978); \textit{J. P. Fitch}, Synthetic Aperture Radar. Springer-Verlag, New York (1988); \textit{J. Detlefsen}, Radartechnik. Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1989); \textit{J. C. Curlander} and \textit{R. N. McDonough}, Synthetic Aperture Radar: Systems and Signal Processing. J. Wiley \& Sons, New York (1991); \textit{R. J. Sullivan}, Microwave Radar: Imaging and Advanced Concepts. Artech House, London (2000; Zbl 0953.78007)]. Target feature extraction from spotlight mode SAR measurements plays an important role in various applications including automatic target recognition (ATR) in reconnaissance with SAR [\textit{W. G. Carrara, R .S. Goodman}, and \textit{R. M. Majewski}, Spotlight Synthetic Aperture Radar: Signal Processing Algorithms. Artech House (1995; Zbl 0838.94001); \textit{M. Soumekh}, Synthetic Aperture Radar. J. Wiley \& Sons, New York, Chichester, Weinheim (1999; Zbl 0974.94003)]. In the paper under review, the authors study the SAR feature extraction and imaging with angle diversity using an ultra wideband radar system. High resolution in cross-range is achieved by collecting data continuously, stopping, collecting more data continuously, stopping, and repeating the same procedure again. In this way, each target scatterer is described by an array of constant phase in both range and cross-range. An algorithm, referred to as quasi-parametric algorithm for target feature recognition (QUALE), applies two-dimensional fast Fourier transform (FFT) to obtain the phase history data. In addition, QUALE estimates and averages the model parameters involved in the flexible data model which include for each scatterer of the target of interest locations in range and cross-range as well as phase. Finally, the SAR image is reconstructed from the estimated features by the sinc filter acting as a reproducing kernel function [\textit{N. Levanon}, Radar Principles. J. Wiley \& Sons, New York (1988); \textit{B. Borden}, Radar Imaging of Airborne Targets: A Primer for Applied Mathematicians and Physicists. IOP Institute of Physics Publishing, Bristol, Philadelphia (1999)].