SAR Ground Moving Target Indication Based on Relative Residue of DPCA Processing

Area of Science:

• Remote Sensing
• Radar Systems
• Signal Processing

Background:

• Modern synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems require advanced ground moving target indication (GMTI) capabilities.
• Existing GMTI methods like displaced phase center antenna (DPCA) struggle with detecting weak distributed targets (e.g., river surfaces) due to low signal-to-clutter ratio (SCR).
• DPCA's performance is limited by target SCR and radial velocity, making it less effective for targets like river surfaces with specular scattering.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel method, relative residue of DPCA (RR-DPCA), for improved SAR/GMTI.
• To enhance the detection of weak distributed targets, such as river surfaces, in challenging clutter conditions.
• To enable simultaneous detection of both point and distributed moving targets.

Main Methods:

• The proposed RR-DPCA method integrates DPCA cancellation outputs with multi-look images.
• Statistical analysis of RR-DPCA outputs on homogenous backgrounds facilitates the application of cell average (CA) for constant false alarm rate (CFAR) detection.
• The method is validated using both simulated and real SAR data.

Main Results:

• RR-DPCA effectively improves the detection performance for weak river surfaces.
• The method demonstrates successful detection of point moving targets (e.g., vehicles).
• Simultaneous detection of both point and distributed moving targets is achieved.

Conclusions:

• The RR-DPCA method offers a significant advancement in SAR/GMTI.
• It overcomes limitations of traditional DPCA for detecting weak distributed targets.
• The proposed technique provides robust and simultaneous detection of diverse moving targets in complex environments.