Target Motion Estimation Techniques in Single-Channel SAR

Abstract

—Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) systems are versatile, high-resolution radar imagers useful for providing detailed intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, especially when atmospheric conditions are non-ideal for optical imagers. However, targets in SAR images are smeared when they are moving. Along-track interferometry is a commonly-used method for extracting the motion parameters of moving targets but requires a dualaperture SAR system, which may be power- size- or cost prohibitive. This paper presents a method of estimating target motion parameters in single-channel SAR data given geometric target motion constraints. This estimation method includes an initial estimate, computation of the SAR ambiguity function, and application of the target motion constraints