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Published on: February 12, 2014
Automatic aircraft landing using interferometric inverse synthetic aperture radar imaging
1Dept. of Electr. and Comput. Eng., State Univ. of New York, Buffalo, NY.
Summary
This study demonstrates accurate aircraft imaging using inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) even at extreme squint angles. Interferometric processing of ISAR data enables precise orientation detection for automatic landing systems.
Area of Science:
- Radar Systems Engineering
- Aerospace Engineering
- Signal Processing
Background:
- Accurate aircraft imaging is crucial for autonomous systems like automatic landing.
- Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR) offers a potential solution for real-time aircraft monitoring.
- Extreme squint angles in ISAR imaging can present significant challenges for traditional algorithms.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the feasibility of using interferometric processing of monostatic and bistatic ISAR signatures for automatic aircraft landing.
- To evaluate the performance of a Fourier-based ISAR reconstruction algorithm at near-90-degree squint angles.
- To determine if phase information from ISAR measurements can be utilized for precise orientation detection.
Main Methods:
- Development and application of a Fourier-based (wavefront) reconstruction algorithm for ISAR imaging.
- Interferometric processing applied to both monostatic and bistatic ISAR signatures.
- Analysis of aircraft orientation using the phase information from the resultant interferometric ISAR images.
Main Results:
- The ISAR imaging algorithm successfully reconstructs aircraft signatures accurately, even at extreme (near 90 degrees) squint angles.
- No erroneous shifts in the cross-range domain were observed, maintaining theoretical resolution.
- The phase information derived from monostatic and bistatic ISAR measurements proved suitable for interferometric processing.
- The resulting interferometric ISAR image effectively detected undesirable aircraft rotations.
Conclusions:
- Fourier-based ISAR imaging is robust and accurate for aircraft at extreme squint angles, suitable for automatic landing applications.
- Interferometric processing of ISAR data provides a reliable method for detecting aircraft orientation deviations.
- This technique enhances the safety and precision of automatic landing systems by enabling real-time monitoring of aircraft attitude.
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