Influence of Radar System Parameters on The Super-resolution Performance for Airborne Forward-looking Scanning Radar

Forward-looking scanning radar uses a servo antenna to scan the forward area and detect targets. However, due to the limitation of antenna aperture, it is difficult to obtain high-resolution images. Direct inverse convolution, a method to enhance image resolution, is ineffective due to the measurement matrix’s pathology. Various super-resolution methods of convolutional inversion have been proposed to solve the pathology problem and acquire high-resolution images. However, the analysis of radar system parameters affecting the super-resolution performance boundary of the algorithm is not presented. This paper analyzes the impact of radar system parameters on the super-resolution performance of forward-looking scanning radar and demonstrates the factors that affect the super-resolution performance. It provides a theoretical understanding of the performance boundaries for the super-resolution method. Additionally, simulation experiments demonstrate the super-resolution performance gain caused by changes in the radar system parameters.

I. Introduction

The radar forward-looking area exhibits minimal Doppler variation [1], rendering synthetic aperture radar (SAR) [2] incapable of producing images in this domain. Although real aperture radar can provide imaging in the forward-looking area through beam scanning, the radar antenna aperture is constrained by the platform, leading to a wide antenna beam width that precludes the acquisition of high-resolution azimuth images. Consequently, there exists an imperative to enhance the azimuth resolution of forward-looking scanning radar.