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This article presents an efficient 2-D baseband azimuth scaling (2-D BAS) approach for the focusing of data acquired in the spaceborne squinted sliding spotlight and high-resolution wide-swath (HRWS) terrain observation by progressive scan (TOPS) imaging modes. The existing approaches can become inefficient or invalid due to the coexistence of central “absolute” and marginal “relative” squint in the above-mentioned modes. In this article, the signal properties of spaceborne squint synthetic aperture radar (SAR) with the antenna electronically steering in the azimuth dimension are analyzed first, based on which a new parity-decomposition-based range equation (PDRE) is presented to dedicatedly model the range histories of targets illuminated by the rotating beam. A novel 2-D BAS approach is then developed to remove the odd asymmetric part but preserve the even symmetric part of PDRE, which means a “true derotation” for eliminating the effect of both absolute and relative squints caused by the beam rotation. An even-order-multinomial perturbation function is applied and integrated into a range-Doppler-based SAR processing kernel to efficiently compensate the azimuth variation of high-order range cell migration (RCM) and azimuth phase modulation caused by the 2-D BAS. The proposed processor is efficient, since none of the data extension, the postprocessing for resolving focused-domain folding, or the 2-D frequency-domain interpolation at high squint is needed. Simulations with point targets in the squinted sliding spotlight and HRWS TOPS modes are used to validate the developed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Imaging of a ground moving target (GMT) with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a challenging task, particularly when the Doppler ambiguity happens. This paper proposes a novel GMT range model and a novel Doppler ambiguity-tolerated GMT imaging algorithm based on modified keystone transform. In the proposed GMT range model, the range from radar antenna to the scattering center on the target is divided into two parts: the range from radar antenna to the target centroid and the projection length on the light of sight from the target centroid to the scattering center. Based on the new range model, a Doppler ambiguity-tolerated range cell migration correction (RCMC) method is proposed, in which keystone transform is modified to realize the differential RCMC by interpolation with nonzero phase sinc kernel. Finally, the GMT image is obtained in the range-Doppler domain by matched filtering in the slow-time domain and is restored into the 2-D space domain. The effectiveness of our proposed model and imaging method is demonstrated by both simulated and real airborne SAR data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is an advanced imaging sensor that can image side-looking terrain. Until now, SAR schemes and imaging theories have been researched for stationary scenes. Unlike a stationary scene, due to unknown motion parameters, a ground moving target (GMT) is shifted and defocused in a background image, which causes difficulties in their use for further applications. This paper proposes a multiple pulse repetition frequency (PRF) airborne SAR scheme for background-free GMT imaging. In the proposed scheme, pulses are transmitted by a nonuniform pulse repetition time, and echoes are divided into groups with different PRFs. For spectra with different PRFs, due to their diverse respective spectra extending periods, periodical extending GMT spectra will not appear at the same location except for the original spectra. A theorem is proposed to prove that the spectra can be extracted intact, undistorted, and unpolluted. In light of the divergence of the GMT spectra location from that of the clutter, filter banks are designed to locate, extract, and reconstruct the GMT spectra out of the mixed spectra that contain the GMT and clutter. For GMT SAR imaging, a moving target is regarded as a steady target under an equivalent geometry with a new equivalent squint angle and a new SAR platform velocity. The SAR image is obtained with the range-Doppler algorithm with equivalent geometry parameters that are estimated from the Doppler parameters. Experimental results obtained from using extensive numerical simulated data validate our proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This letter presents a new efficient phase filtering algorithm for synthetic aperture radar interferometric phase images. Based on the additive noise model, we assume that the phase without noise is composed of principal phase components and residual phase components. A new two-step adaptive filtering algorithm based on this assumption is then developed. First, the principal phase components are adaptively estimated using the frequency spectrum with an adaptive bound and removed from the original noisy phase; thus, a residual noisy phase is obtained. Second, spatial filtering is carried out on this residual noisy phase image using four directional masks. The filter equals three other common filters when three different special bound parameters are set accordingly. This algorithm is effective, particularly for the interferometric phase images with tightly packed fringes or low coherence. Numerical results obtained with synthetic and real data show a significant improvement with respect to other conventional filtering algorithms in some situations of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]