Angular extent effect of micromotion target in SAR image by polar format algorithm

Target micromotion not only plays an important role in target recognition but also leads to esoteric characteristics in synthetic aperture radar （SAR） imaging. This paper finds out an interesting phenomenon, i.e. the angular extent effect, in micro-motion target images formulated by the polar format algorithm. A micromotion target takes on multiple pairs of paired echoes （PEs） around the true point, and each PE extends for an angle which is exactly equal to the angular extent of the synthetic aperture, regardless of the micromotion frequency. The effect is derived and interpreted by using the characteristics of Bessel functions. Then it is demonstrated by simulation experiments of a target with different micromotion frequencies. The revelation and interpretation of the effect is highly beneficial to micromotion-target SAR image understanding as wel as target recognition.     

Multi-polarization reconstruction from compact polarimetry based on modified four-component scattering decomposition

An improved algorithm for multi-polarization reconstruction from compact polarimetry （CP） is proposed. According to two fundamental assumptions in compact polarimetric reconstruction, two improvements are proposed. Firstly, the four-component model-based decomposition algorithm is modified with a new volume scattering model. The decomposed helix scattering component is then used to deal with the non-reflection symmetry condition in compact polarimetric measurements. Using the decomposed power and considering the scattering mechanism of each component, an average relationship between copolarized and crosspolarized channels is developed over the original polarization state extrapolation model. E-SAR polarimetric data acquired over the Oberpfaffenhofen area and JPL/AIRSAR polarimetric data acquired over San Francisco are used for verification, and good reconstruction results are obtained, demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.     

Cramer-Rao bound and signal-to-noise ratio gain in distributed coherent aperture radar

This paper studies the estimation performance of the coherent processing parameter （CPP）, including time delay differences and phase synchronization errors among different apertures of the distributed coherent aperture radar （DCAR）. Firstly, three architectures of signal processing in the DCAR are introduced. Secondly, the closed-form Cramer-Rao bound （CRB） of the CPP estimation is derived and compared. Then, the closed-form CRB is verified by numerical simulations. Finally, when the next generation radar works in a fully coherent mode, the closed-form signal-to-noise ratio （SNR） gain of the three architectures is presented.     

New analytical imaging algorithm for general case airborne bistatic SAR

This paper focuses on the general case （GC） airborne bistatic synthetic aperture radar （SAR） data processing, and a new analytical imaging algorithm based on the extended Loffeld＇s bistatic formula （ELBF） is proposed. According to the bistatic SAR geometry, the track decoupling formulas that convert the bistatic geometry to the receiver-referenced geometry in a concise way are derived firstly. Then phase terms of ELBF are decomposed into two independent phase terms as the range phase term and the azimuth phase term in a new way. To get the focusing result, the bistatic deformation （BD） term is compensated in the two-dimensional （2- D） frequency domain, and the space-variances of the range phase term and the azimuth phase term are eliminated by chirp scaling （CS） and chirp z-transform （CZT）, respectively. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified by the simulation results.     

Azimuth resolution improvement for spaceborne SAR images with quasi-non-overlapped Doppler bandwidth

The azimuth resolution improvement problem is solved via a coherent combination of synthetic aperture radar （SAR） ima-ges with the quasi-non-overlapped Doppler bandwidth. Prior to the spectra combination, SAR images should be coregistered, while phase biases induced by topography, atmospheric propagation delays and baseline measurement errors should be calibrated. However, the coregistration accuracy suffers from large Doppler decorrelation caused by the quasi-non-overlapped Doppler band-width. Furthermore, the method used to estimate phase biases from interferogram of azimuth prefiltered SAR image pairs wil fail when there is no overlapped spectrum. The fringe simulation and maximum sharpness optimization are adopted to deal with the problems. Accordingly, a novel algorithm to coherently synthesize SAR images is presented. The experiment with the Terra SAR X-band （TerraSAR-X） satel ite data validates the performance of the presented method.     

Modulation recognition of MIMO radar signal based on joint HOS and SNR algorithm

This paper presents a joint high order statistics （HOS） and signal-to-noise ratio （SNR） algorithm for the recognition of multiple-input multiple-output （MIMO） radar signal without a priori knowledge of the signal parameters. This method is capable of recognizing the MIMO radar signal as well as discriminating it from single-carrier signal adopted by conventional radar. Meanwhile, the sub-carrier number of the none-coding MIMO radar signal is estimated. Extensive simulations are carried out in different operating conditions. Simulation results prove the feasibility and indicate that the recognition probability could reach over 90% when the value of SNR is above 0 dB.     

Cramer-Rao bound of joint estimation of target location and velocity for coherent MIMO radar

The optimal estimation performance of target parameters is studied. First, the general form of Cramer-Rao bound （CRB） for joint estimation of target location and velocity is derived for coherent multiple input multiple output （MIMO） radars. To gain some insight into the behavior of the CRB, the CRB with a set of given orthogonal waveforms is studied as a specific case. Second, a maximum likelihood （ML） estimation algorithm is proposed. The mean square error （MSE） of the ML estimation of target location and velocity is obtained by Monte Carlo simulation and it approaches CRB in the high signal-to-noise ratio （SNR） region.     

Series expansion feasibility of singular integral in method of moments

When calculating electromagnetic scattering using method of moments （MoM）, integral of the singular term has a significant influence on the results. This paper transforms the singular surface integral to the contour integral. The integrand is expanded to Taylor series and the integral results in a closed form. The cut-off error is analyzed to show that the series converges fast and only about 2 terms can agree wel with the accurate result. The comparison of the perfect electric conductive （PEC） sphere＇s bi-static radar cross section （RCS） using MoM and the accurate method validates the feasibility in manipulating the singularity. The error due to the facet size and the cut-off terms of the series are analyzed in examples.     

Solution for polarimetric radar cross section measurement and calibration

The exact radar cross-section （RCS） measurement is difficult when the scattering of targets is low. Ful polarimetric cali-bration is one technique that offers the potential for improving the accuracy of RCS measurements. There are numerous polarimetric calibration algorithms. Some complex expressions in these algo-rithms cannot be easily used in an engineering practice. A radar polarimetric coefficients matrix （RPCM） with a simpler expression is presented for the monostatic radar polarization scattering matrix （PSM） measurement. Using a rhombic dihedral corner reflector and a metal ic sphere, the RPCM can be obtained by solving a set of equations, which can be used to find the true PSM for any target. An example for the PSM of a metal ic dish shows that the proposed method obviously improves the accuracy of cross-polarized RCS measurements.     

ECCM scheme against interrupted sampling repeater jammer based on time-frequency analysis

The interrupted sampling repeater jamming（ISRJ） is an effective deception jamming method for coherent radar, especially for the wideband linear frequency modulation（LFM） radar. An electronic counter-countermeasure（ECCM） scheme is proposed to remove the ISRJ-based false targets from the pulse compression result of the de-chirping radar. Through the time-frequency（TF） analysis of the radar echo signal, it can be found that the TF characteristics of the ISRJ signal are discontinuous in the pulse duration because the ISRJ jammer needs short durations to receive the radar signal. Based on the discontinuous characteristics a particular band-pass filter can be generated by two alternative approaches to retain the true target signal and suppress the ISRJ signal. The simulation results prove the validity of the proposed ECCM scheme for the ISRJ.     

Switching variability index based multiple strategy CFAR detector

A switching variability index （SVl） constant false alarm rate （CFAR） detector is proposed for improving the detection performance of VI-CFAR detectors in multiple targets backgrounds. When the presence of non-homogeneity in CFAR reference windows is indicated by a VI-CFAR detector, a switching- CFAR detector is introduced to optimize the performance of the VI-CFAR detector in homogeneous, multiple targets and clutter edge backgrounds. The structure and parameters selection method of the SVI-CFAR detector is presented. Comparisons with classic CFAR detectors and recently proposed detectors are also given. Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that SVICFAR detector maintains the good performance of the VI-CFAR detector in homogeneous and clutter edge backgrounds, while greatly improving the capacity of anti-multi targets.     

Improved algorithms to plan missions for agile earth observation satellites

This study concentrates of the new generation of the agile （AEOS）. AEOS is a key study object on management problems earth observation satellite in many countries because of its many advantages over non-agile satellites. Hence, the mission planning and scheduling of AEOS is a popular research problem. This research investigates AEOS characteristics and establishes a mission planning model based on the working principle and constraints of AEOS as per analysis. To solve the scheduling issue of AEOS, several improved algorithms are developed. Simulation results suggest that these algorithms are effective.     

Modified unscented Kalman filter using modified filter gain and variance scale factor for highly maneuvering target tracking

To improve the low tracking precision caused by lagged filter gain or imprecise state noise when the target highly maneuvers, a modified unscented Kalman filter algorithm based on the improved filter gain and adaptive scale factor of state noise is presented. In every filter process, the estimated scale factor is used to update the state noise covariance Qk, and the improved filter gain is obtained in the filter process of unscented Kalman filter （UKF） via predicted variance Pk｜k-1, which is similar to the standard Kalman filter. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm provides better accuracy and ability to adapt to the highly maneuvering target compared with the standard UKF.     

Novel approach for identifying Z-axis drift of RLG based on GA-SVR model

This paper describes a novel approach for identifying the Z-axis drift of the ring laser gyroscope （RLG） based on ge-netic algorithm （GA） and support vector regression （SVR） in the single-axis rotation inertial navigation system （SRINS）. GA is used for selecting the optimal parameters of SVR. The latitude error and the temperature variation during the identification stage are adopted as inputs of GA-SVR. The navigation results show that the proposed GA-SVR model can reach an identification accuracy of 0.000 2 （？）/h for the Z-axis drift of RLG. Compared with the ra-dial basis function-neural network （RBF-NN） model, the GA-SVR model is more effective in identification of the Z-axis drift of RLG.     

Response surface method using grey relational analysis for decision making in weapon system selection

A proper weapon system is very important for a na- tional defense system. Generally, it means selecting the optimal weapon system among many alternatives, which is a multiple- attribute decision making （MADM） problem. This paper proposes a new mathematical model based on the response surface method （RSM） and the grey relational analysis （GRA）. RSM is used to obtain the experimental points and analyze the factors that have a significant impact on the selection results. GRA is used to an- alyze the trend relationship between alternatives and reference series. And then an RSM model is obtained, which can be used to calculate all alternatives and obtain ranking results. A real world application is introduced to illustrate the utilization of the model for the weapon selection problem. The results show that this model can be used to help decision-makers to make a quick comparison of alternatives and select a proper weapon system from multiple alternatives, which is an effective and adaptable method for solving the weapon system selection problem.     

Weighted joint calibration for interferometric SAR

Calibration is a processing procedure for across-track interferometric synthetic aperture radar （InSAR） to achieve an accurate three-dimensional location. A calibration technique, called weighted joint calibration, for the generation of wide-area geocoded digital elevation models （DEMs） is proposed. It cali- brates multiple InSAR scenes simultaneously, and allows reducing the number of required ground control points （GCPs） by using tie points （TPs）. This approach may ensure the continuity of three- dimensional location among adjacent scenes, which is necessary for mosaic and fusion of data coming from different scenes. In addition, it introduces weights to calibration to discriminate GCPs and TPs with different coherences and locations. This paper presents the principles and methodology of this weighted joint calibration technique and illustrates its successful application in airborne In- SAR data.     

Radial acceleration estimation of multiple high maneuvering targets

The acceleration of a high maneuvering target in signal processing is helpful to enhance the performance of the tracker and facilitate the classification of targets. At present, most of the research on acceleration estimation is carried out in cases of a single target with time-frequency analysis methods such as fractional Fourier transform （FRFT）, Hough-ambiguity transform （HAT）, and Wigner-Vil e distribution （WVD）, which need to satisfy enough time duration and sampling theorem. Only one reference proposed a method of acceleration estimation for multiple targets based on modified polynomial phase transform （MPPT） in the lin-ear frequency modulation （LFM） continuous-wave （CW） radar. The method of acceleration estimation for multiple targets in the pulse Doppler （PD） radar has not been reported so far. Compressive sensing （CS） has the advantage of sampling at a low rate and short duration without sacrificing estimation performance. There-fore, this paper proposes a new method of acceleration estimation for multiple maneuvering targets with the unknown number based on CS with pulse Doppler signals. Simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed method under several conditions with different duration, measurement numbers, signal to noise ra-tios （SNR）, and regularization parameters, respectively. Simulation results also show that the performance of the proposed method is superior to that of FRFT and HAT in the condition of multiple targets.     

Reduced K-best sphere decoding algorithm based on minimum route distance and noise variance

This paper focuses on reducing the complexity of K-best sphere decoding （SD） algorithm for the detection of uncoded multi-ple input multiple output （MIMO） systems. The proposed algorithm utilizes the threshold-pruning method to cut nodes with partial Euclidean distances （PEDs） larger than the threshold. Both the known noise value and the unknown noise value are considered to generate the threshold, which is the sum of the two values. The known noise value is the smal est PED of signals in the detected layers. The unknown noise value is generated by the noise power, the quality of service （QoS） and the signal-to-noise ratio （SNR） bound. Simulation results show that by considering both two noise values, the proposed algorithm makes an efficient reduction while the performance drops little.     

Inference for constant-stress accelerated life test with Type-I progressively hybrid censored data from Burr-Xll distribution

This paper proposes a simple constant-stress accel- erated life test （ALT） model from Burr type XII distribution when the data are Type-I progressively hybrid censored. The maximum likelihood estimation （MLE） of the parameters is obtained through the numerical method for solving the likelihood equations. Approxi- mate confidence interval （CI）, based on normal approximation to the asymptotic distribution of MLE and percentile bootstrap Cl is derived. Finally, a numerical example is introduced and then a Monte Carlo simulation study is carried out to illustrate the pro- posed method.     

Angular glint calculation and analysis of radar targets via adaptive cross approximation algorithm

Angular glint is a significant electromagnetic （EM） scattering signature of extended radar targets. Based on the adaptive cross approximation （ACA） algorithm accelerated method of moments （MoM） and the plane incident wave assumption, the narrowband, wideband and newly developed high-resolution range profile （HRRP） based angular glint calculation formulations are derived and applied to arbitrarily shaped three-dimensional （3D） perfectly electrical y conducting （PEC） objects. In addition, the near-field angular glint is emphasized, which is of great importance for radarseeker applications. Furthermore, with the HRRP based angular glint, an approach to rigorously determine range resolution cel s which own relatively smal er angular glint is provided. Numerical results are presented with new findings to demonstrate the usefulness of the developed formulations.