Super-Resolution Imaging for Real Aperture Radar by Two-Dimensional Deconvolution

Real aperture super-resolution (RAS) technology is widely used in the field of radar forward-looking imaging. However, traditional RAS technology is based on the space-to-ground scanning mode. The essence of this technology is azimuth (angle) super-resolution, which is a one-dimensional super-resolution technology. In our work, we consider applying RAS technology to the space-to-space scanning. In this mode, we regard the echo of each range slice as the convolution of the target scattering coefficient distribution and the antenna pattern function. Its essence is azimuth and pitch super-resolution, which is a two-dimensional super-resolution technology. Finally, a reasonable objective function is constructed under the framework of regularization, and the ADMM solver is used to achieve two-dimensional super-resolution imaging. Simulations will prove the effectiveness of the proposed two-dimensional super-resolution algorithm.

1. Introduction

Real aperture radar (RAR) is an important sensor that is widely used in radar forward-looking area imaging, such as airport monitoring, topographic mapping, ship navigation, and materials or troop dropping[1], [2]. In these applications, the RAR is fixed on a stationary or moving platform and sweeps the forward-looking area of the platform at certain pulse repetition frequency (PRF) to obtain two-dimensional echo imagery.