One-Bit Cross-Range Scaling Approach to ISAR Imaging

The cross-range scaling technique plays a crucial role in inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging. It enables the determination of the absolute size of the target by transforming the ISAR image from the range–Doppler (RD) domain to the homogeneous range cross-range (RC) domain. This work devises an accurate cross-range scaling approach based on the one-bit data extracted from ISAR echoes. The proposed approach provides a novel strategy to improve the accuracy of the phase parameter estimation for cross-range scaling. It amplifies the phase of the echo via extracting one-bit data. By leveraging the amplified feature carried by the generated harmonics, the proposed approach can achieve higher accuracy while maintaining the search interval. Additionally, the proposal exhibits a low computational burden and is easy to implement. The effectiveness is validated through experiments conducted on simulated and real measured data.