Real-time Imaging Algorithm for High-Squint Maneuvering-Platform SAR

Abstract

Maneuvering-platform SAR imaging is a long-term research hotspot in the field of microwave imaging and precise guidance. In practice, the maneuvering-platform movement may change rapidly and violently, so it is convenient to use sub-aperture imaging mode and the auxiliary information from INS onboard to realize the real-time imaging of maneuvering-platform SAR. First, the inertial data is employed to estimate the Doppler parameters of the burst echoes. The acceleration measured by INS is utilized to compensate the error caused by the approximate constant acceleration of the platform through azimuth dechirping. Then the ECS algorithm for sub-aperture imaging is introduced to complete the pre-processing of the burst data. Finally, the burst image is acquired by multilooking. The imaging scheme considers the impact of acceleration on maneuvering-platform SAR imaging, and it is simple to be actualized and significantly reduces the computation load based on the conventional ECS algorithm, which is suitable for real-time imaging applications.