Optimal Time Selection for ISAR Imaging of Ship Targets Based on Time-Frequency Analysis of Multiple Scatterers

The equivalent rotation vector synthesized by 3-D nonuniform rotation of ship target leads to the time-varying characteristic of Doppler frequency of ship echo data, which will cause the image to be defocused in azimuth. In order to obtain high-resolution inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) images of ship targets, we developed an optimal time selection algorithm based on time-frequency analysis of multiple scatterers. In this letter, we addressed the challenges of the serious cross-term interference in time-frequency analysis and measuring the stability of Doppler frequency. The time interval with a minimum variation of Doppler frequency was determined by using time-frequency analysis of multiple isolated scatterers and root mean squared error (RMSE). The effectiveness and robustness of the proposed algorithm were evaluated by both simulated and real ISAR data.