A Two-Step Approach for Pulse RFI Detection in SAR Data

The existence of pulse radio frequency interference (PRFI) severely affects the signal processing and image interpretation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR), which cannot be ignored. In SAR data processing, the detection accuracy directly affects the performance of the PRFI mitigation algorithm. However, most of the existing detectors can only detect the occurrence of PRFI, but cannot locate the PRFI. Based on a two-step process combining eigenvalue decomposition (EVD) with short-time Fourier transform (STFT), in this paper, a novel PRFI detector, which has the capability to detecting and locating PRFI, is proposed. In the proposed detector, the first step is the detection of PRFI occurrence, which is based on the Hankel structure and EVD. The second step is the location of PRFI, which is based on the STFT and a simple ratio operator. Experimental results, which are based on simulated and measured SAR data, validate the performance of the proposed PRFI detector.