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A large time-bandwidth product bistatic radar offers several advantages in high-resolution target detection and motion parameter estimation, but the scale factor and inner-pulse Doppler will also be introduced in the radar echoes when detecting high-speed targets. Under this condition, the conventional matched filter will cause a certain energy loss and a nonnegligible shift of the range center, which is called mismatch effect. Considering the special geometries of the bistatic radar, we first establish the precise echo signal (PES) model to describe the radar echoes for high-speed targets in a space–air-based bistatic radar system. By analyzing the mismatch effect within the pulse and the migration between pulses, we have obtained the mathematic relationship between the scale factor, inner-pulse Doppler shift, range, equivalent velocity, and acceleration. Following that, we perceive that the parameters of the matched filter are related to the target motion parameters, i.e., a priori unknown, which inspires us to propose an iterative coherent integration method to achieve the intrapulse and interpulse integration. A PES model matched filter with initial parameters is defined and a roughly motion parameter estimation is acquired by the PES model-based Keystone transform (PES-KT) and inner-pulse chirp Fourier transform (CFT). The estimated parameters are used for matched filter construction and coherent integration. This process is performed over multiple iterations to provide an accurate motion parameter result. In the end, a target detection experiment is given to show the effectiveness of the proposed method using space–air-based bistatic radar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a transition platform between aircraft and satellite, hypersonic vehicle-borne (HSV) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) could offer many advantages such as strong survival ability, fast response, and wide detection range. However, due to the complex aerodynamic configuration and flight characteristics of the hypersonic platform, the HSV SAR faces new challenges including serious cross-couplings and spatial variations. In order to deal with these issues, a radius/angle algorithm (RAA) is devised, which has a similar processing flow as that of the conventional polar format algorithm (PFA). In the RAA, a novel 2-D interpolation function, similar to that of the PFA which is performed in the Cartesian coordinates, is derived in the curvilinear coordinate system. Due to the high accuracy of the multi-decomposition by using the polar radius and polar angle, the RAA has a much larger depth-of-focus than that of the PFA. Moreover, the RAA approach is insensitive to the height variations for the HSV SAR with curved trajectory flight, whereas the PFA is not because of the out-of-plane projection effect. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the traditional model of monostatic synthetic aperture radar (SAR), the flying platform should have a uniform linear trajectory. In practice, the flight path of the SAR platform, which is highly nonlinear or curvy caused by 3-D velocity and acceleration, cannot be used in the traditional model. In this paper, a geometrical model of the monostatic SAR with general configurations is graphically illustrated by vector notation. Moreover, the gradient method is utilized to point out the effects of the motion parameters, namely, velocity vector and acceleration vector, on total bandwidth and image resolution. Based on the accurate model, a general frequency-domain algorithm, with the incorporations of pre- and postprocessing, is proposed to focus the raw data. Applicability is studied through theoretical analysis and numerical experiments. All these general analyses can be applied to different realizations of monostatic SAR mode, including spotlight SAR, sliding spotlight SAR, and Terrain Observation by Progressive Scans (TOPS) SAR. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]