Practical imaging algorithms in ultra-wideband radar systems using active aperture synthesis and stochastic probing signals

Abstract

The subject of the manuscript is the algorithms for radar imaging. This research develops imaging methods and algorithms for wideband and ultrawideband active aperture synthesis systems with antenna arrays and stochastic probing signals. The use of antenna arrays makes it possible to obtain radar images without the need to move radar or antenna system in space. The use of wideband and ultra-wideband stochastic probing signals is justified by their narrow autocorrelation functions. This increased the resolution of the obtained images. The main idea of the proposed algorithms is to filter the original wideband signal into several narrowband processes. Furthermore, only the central frequencies of each narrowband signal were processed. This approach allows us to use the classical widespread methods of aperture synthesis for the case of a wideband signal. Usually, they are applicable only for narrowband signals that satisfy the condition of a quasi-monochromatic approximation. This significantly reduces the overall computational complexity of the imaging algorithm, which simplifies its further practical implementation on the existing radioelement base. Because of the simulation, a primary radar image has been obtained and the overall performance of the proposed approach to processing wideband signals has been confirmed. An increase in the quality of the obtained image when using a multiple of frequency ranges is shown. An experimental study of the effect of processing a wideband signal only at its centre frequency instead of the entire frequency band is conducted. During the experiment, the correlation functions of the signals received by two spaced receivers were obtained. As a result, the Van Cittert-Zernike theorem has been experimentally confirmed. It allows signal processing only at its centre frequency instead of the entire frequency band. Simultaneously, the prospect of expanding the bandwidth of the probing signal is indicated. It, in the presence of a wideband element base and devices for high-speed signal processing, will further increase the imaging resolution of a radar system.