Bistatic SAR system with GPS transmitter

ABSTRACTBistatic synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a new type of SAR system which is capable of achieving multi‐angle target detection and flexible configuration. For spaceborne bistatic SAR, when operating at low frequencies, it is susceptible to the ionosphere. The ionospheric Faraday rotation effect will cause a rotation of polarisation plane of electromagnetic waves, leading to amplitude and phase errors between different polarisation channels of SAR. This effect can be compensated by estimating the Faraday rotation angle. Currently, Faraday rotation angle estimation methods for spaceborne SAR are all applicable to monostatic SAR. However, due to the different signal propagation paths between bistatic SAR and monostatic SAR, the Faraday rotation angle estimation method differs for bistatic SAR. This paper proposes a Faraday rotation angle estimation method for bistatic spaceborne SAR, which is applicable to the alternating bistatic mode. The effectiveness of the method is verified through simulation experiments and the performance of the method is analysed. Under different signal‐to‐noise ratios (SNR) and filtering window sizes, the estimation error range is 0.02°‐0.26°.

With appropriate geometry configurations, bistatic Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) can break through the limitations of monostatic SAR on forward-looking imaging. Thanks to such a capability, bistatic forward-looking SAR (BFSAR) has extensive potential applications. However, the current BFSAR imaging algorithms always involve the time-consuming interpolation to carry out range migration correction. This paper develops a Chirp Scaling type imaging algorithm, which just needs the complex multiplication and FFT, for BFSAR with two parallel moving stations. The simulation results validate the effectiveness of the method.

Bistatic inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) is an ISAR system whose transmitter and receiver are placed in different places. The configuration mode makes it have some differences with monostatic ISAR. Combined with the reality of bistatic ISAR, the paper analyzed the two important factors, signal to noise ratio (SNR) and bistatic angle, who affect the imaging quality. The equal SNR curve of bistatic ISAR is Cassini's Oval whose focus are transmitter and receiver, and the equal bistatic angle curve is a series of circular arc whose center is on the vertical bisector of bistaic baseline and pass the bistatic radar. To ensure the imaging quality, if the echo has enough SNR, the imaging segment should choose the area far from the vertical bisector of based line. The research in this study provides significant evidence for the selection of imaging segment.

With appropriate geometry configurations, bistatic Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) can break through the limitations of monostatic SAR for forward-looking imaging. Thanks to such a capability, bistatic forward-looking SAR (BFSAR) has extensive potential applications. This paper develops a frequency-domain imaging algorithm for translational invariant BFSAR. The algorithm uses the method of Lengendre polynomials expansion to compute the two dimensional point target reference spectrum, and this spectrum is used to perform the range cell migration correction (RCMC), secondary range compression and azimuth compression. In particular, the Doppler-centroid and bistatic-range dependent interpolation for residual RCMC is presented in detail. In addition, a method that combines the ambiguity and resolution theories to determine the forward-looking imaging swath is also presented in this paper.

The authors consider Low Earth Orbited Satellite (LEOS) systems for personal communications. Their rather high power spectral density near the Earth surface could be used for aircraft detection. Bistatic radars that utilize communication signal transmitting from LEOS could operate in a passive mode. Moreover, the targets will be characterized by their bistatic radar cross-section (RCS) that could be 20 to 40 dB larger than the monostatic RCS. Another LEOS peculiarity is their high speed relative to the surface. This fact can be used for radar applications, namely: to design a bistatic synthetic aperture radar (SAR). Such a bistatic radar has a receiving subsystem near the acquisition scene (restricted usually by the horizon line) and the transmitter is the satellite transmitting communication signals. The direct communication line could be used for the heterodyne synchronization. It is important to mention, that a heterodyne signal should be formed that way in order to avoid or maximally reduce the Doppler frequency shift in the heterodyne circuit. In the present paper, using a particular example, the authors demonstrate the feasibility of this approach and evaluate parameters for system development. The example system demonstrates the feasibility of vessel detection at sea.

Raw signal simulation is a useful tool for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system design, mission planning, processing algorithm testing, and inversion algorithm design. Time and frequency synchronization is the key technique of bistatic SAR (BiSAR) system, and raw data simulation is an effective tool for verifying the time and frequency synchronization techniques. According to the two-dimensional (2-D) frequency spectrum of fixed-receiver BiSAR, a rapid raw data simulation approach with time and frequency synchronization errors is proposed in this paper. Through 2-D inverse Stolt transform in 2-D frequency domain and phase compensation in range-Doppler frequency domain, this method can significantly improve the efficiency of scene raw data simulation. Simulation results of point targets and extended scene are presented to validate the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed simulation approach.

Bistatic synthetic aperture radar (SAR) processing requires precise knowledge about geometrical parameters of the flown bistatic constellation, whereas estimation of these parameters is even more important than in the monostatic case. As it is impossible to separate the individual semimonostatic parameters from the bistatic raw data, the searched parameters are derived from the tracks of the moving platforms. For this reason, global positioning system (GPS) and inertial navigation system (INS) position and velocity data of transmitter and receiver are combined in an optimal way by a Kalman filter approach. As a consequence of model-based interpolation, we can easily determine varying parameters like Doppler centroid frequency, azimuth velocity, and the bistatic parameters a2 and a0 referring to the illuminated scene at each time instant. Accurately determined position and velocity of the transmitter and receiver enable a first-order bistatic motion compensation (MC), which is also described in this paper. In verifying our approach, GPS/INS tracks and raw data of a bistatic airborne SAR experiment flown in 2003 were used, where the data were provided by Forschungsgesellschaft fu umlr Angewandte Naturwissenschaften e.V., Wachtberg, Germany. The focusing was done by a scaled inverse Fourier transformation processor for nearly parallel trajectories for transmitter and receiver. This paper focuses on analyzing the trajectories and antenna beams of bistatic missions to obtain accurate processing parameters and MC functions.

Bistatic inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) can help image the high-speed target for its advantage in tracking and more observation angle to provide more information than monostatic ISAR. However, the complex image geometry makes it difficult to achieve a clear image of the target with geometry distortion correction and calibration. Furthermore, high-speed motion will make the image blurred or defocussed. To address these problems, a bistatic ISAR (B-ISAR) imaging method for high-speed motion target with geometric distortion correction and calibration is proposed. According to the motion decomposition idea, we established the B-ISAR echo model of the high-speed motion target. Then, based on the range Doppler algorithm, we deduce the analytic formula of the geometric distortion factor and calibration factor, and transform the imaging problem into a parameter estimation problem. With the sparsity of the scattering points, the required parameters are solved using the expectation maximization algorithm based on the maximum a posteriori probability criterion. With the estimated parameters, a clear B-ISAR image of a high-speed motion target with geometric correction and calibration is obtained. The simulations show that the proposed method has better resolution and simultaneously attains geometric distortion correction and calibration of the image.

Performance analysis of Bistatic Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) characterized by arbitrary geometric configurations is usually complex and time-consuming since system impulse response has to be evaluated by bistatic SAR processing. This approach does not allow derivation of general equations regulating the behaviour of image resolutions with varying the observation geometry. It is well known that for an arbitrary configuration of bistatic SAR there are not perpendicular range and azimuth directions, but the capability to produce an image is not prevented as it depends only on the possibility to generate image pixels from time delay and Doppler measurements. However, even if separately range and Doppler resolutions are good, bistatic SAR geometries can exist in which imaging capabilities are very poor when range and Doppler directions become locally parallel. The present paper aims to derive analytical tools for calculating the geometric resolutions of arbitrary configuration of bistatic SAR. The method has been applied to a hybrid bistatic Synthetic Aperture Radar formed by a spaceborne illuminator and a receiving-only airborne forward-looking Synthetic Aperture Radar (F-SAR). It can take advantage of the spaceborne illuminator to dodge the limitations of monostatic FSAR. Basic modeling and best illumination conditions have been detailed in the paper.

Due to the fact that the range history of bistatic synthetic aperture radar (SAR) doesn’t follow the hyperbolic function, the accurate analytical spectrum of bistatic SAR cannot be obtained directly by the principle of stationary phase (POSP). In this paper, we approximate the range history of bistatic SAR by the hyperbolic function, and propose a novel two-dimensional (2-D) analytical spectrum model for bistatic SAR. The huge advantage of this novel 2-D analytical spectrum is that the equivalent radial velocity of any scatter point in the observed scene, with respect to the radar platform, is not only the same but also invariant with the equivalent range. Further, based on this novel spectrum model, the wavenumber domain algorithm (WDA) could be applied to image the whole observed scene. Finally, the simulation and realistic data imaging results also validate that this novel spectrum model is correct and effective.

Based on the analysis of the airborne bistatic synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging geometric mode, an extended nonlinear chirp scaling algorithm is employed to simulate and verify the imaging effect of the bistatic SARs. A gradient theory-based two-dimensional resolution bistatic SAR model is proposed, and the constraints of the multi-platform flight trajectory parameters meeting the imaging accuracy of the bistatic SAR are analyzed. Finally, through the bistatic SAR imaging simulation of cooperative flight trajectories under various situations, the spatial configuration constraint envelope between the flight vehicles to achieve the optimal resolution is revealed. The results of this paper will provide a theoretical reference for the SAR application in formation flight control.

In practical radar imagery operations, there are often cases where the radar's operating bandwidth is interrupted, either periodically or randomly. Such interruption produces artifacts in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and inverse SAR (ISAR) images, and thus severely degrades the reconstructed images. As a consequence, novel image processing algorithms are required to alleviate the artifacts for high quality images. Various algorithms for SAR/ISAR image reconstruction from periodically gapped data have been developed. These include extensions of the APES and the Capon methods, such as periodically-gapped Capon (PG-Capon) and PG-APES (Larsson, E.G. and Li, J., IEEE Trans. Aerospace and Electronic Systems, vol.39, no.3, p.1089-97, 2003). Based on Larsson and Li's work, we develop 2D PG-Capon and PG-APES algorithms for ISAR image reconstruction from periodically gapped data. Image reconstruction examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the current procedures with comparison to the results by their 1D versions and by the coherent CLEAN algorithm.

In this paper, an effective moving target imaging approach is proposed for the geosynchronous-low earth orbit (GEO-LEO) bi-static multi-channel SAR system, which is robust for the fast moving target with Doppler centroid ambiguity. We discover that the baseline can be approximately regarded as a constant in chirp Fourier transform domain for the GEO-LEO bi-static multi-channel SAR system. Hence, the corresponding baseline compensation can be achieved in the azimuth chirp Fourier transform domain for the clutter. Then, the clutter can be well-suppressed and the moving target is extracted. After that, the moving target imaging approach is developed with the baseband Doppler centroid estimation and Doppler ambiguity number estimation. Finally, the theoretical investigations and the proposed approach in this paper is validated by experiments.

Inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging is typically useful when there is a need to classify, recognize, or identify a moving target of interest. In fact, an ISAR image highlights two-dimensional (2-D) geometric features of a target, which can provide indications of target's type, size, and other salient information. Such information can be then used for target classification, recognition, and identification. In this chapter, we will provide five case studies on applications of ISAR imaging. Such case studies are chosen to diversify the type of application and to give additional indications about how to interpret ISAR images. Specifically, in the first case study (Section 12.1), we show an example of ground-based ISAR images of a noncooperative sailing ship. The ISAR techniques used to form the ISAR images are the range-Doppler (Chapter 3) and the ICBA (Chapter 5) techniques. Different time windows are chosen to show the effects of the coherent processing interval (CPI) length on the ISAR image. Since the radar is ground based, this represents a case where the ISAR image is formed by exploiting only the sea surface induced target's motions. The second case study (Section 12.2) refers to a scenario where the radar is carried by an aircraft and the target is a ship at sea. In this case, both the target and the platform motions concur to the ISAR image formation. Also in this case, the range-Doppler and ICBA are used to form the ISAR image sequence. The third case study (Section 12.3) concerns dual ground-based/satellite ISAR imaging of a noncooperative sailing ship. In this experiment two radars are used to image a sailing ship at the same time. Two techniques are here used to form the ISAR images: a refocus technique (see Chapter 8) to form the satellite ISAR image; and a range-Doppler with ICBA to form the ground-based ISAR image. In this case study, we show how a dual system is able to form ISAR images of the same target with different target's views and projections. This is a simple case of multiple-perspective ISAR images, which may be looked at as a way to improve a target's classification and recognition [1]. The fourth case study (Section 12.4) shows ISAR images of four aircrafts obtained by processing data acquired with a ground-base radar. This case study may be regarded as the classic ISAR imaging example. Four different airplanes have been selected to show how their characteristics are mapped onto ISAR images. Such characteristics can then be used by classifiers for recognition purposes.

Spatial Channel Sounding Based on Bistatic Synthetic Aperture Radar Principles