Motion Compensation for Airborne Forward Looking Synthetic Aperture Radar with Linear Array Antennas: Motion Compensation for Airborne Forward Looking Synthetic Aperture Radar with Linear Array Antennas

Abstract

: Combined with Frequency-Modulated Continuous-Wave (FMCW) technology, airborne forward-looking Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) with linear array antennas can obtain the images in front of an aircraft, while having the advantages of FMCW radar such as small size and lightweight. Moreover, it is suitable for installation on platforms such as helicopters and small unmanned aerial vehicles. In practice, motion compensation for forward-looking SAR with linear array antennas is one of the key problems to obtaining the images in front of aircraft. This paper uses linear array antennas to analyses the influence of motion error in aircraft on an echo model based on the geometry of forward looking SAR, with linear array antennas, and proposes a motion compensation scheme. Moreover, the compensation scheme is applied to an improved Frequency Scaling Algorithm (FSA) for FMCW forward looking SAR with linear array antennas. Finally, the compensation scheme is verified using simulations.