Optimization of Weighting Window Functions for SAR Imaging via QCQP Approach

Weighting window functions are commonly used in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging to suppress the high Peak SideLobe Ratio (PSLR) at the price of probable Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) loss and mainlobe widening. In this paper, based on the method of designing a mismatched filter, we have proposed a Quadratically Constrained Quadratic Program (QCQP) approach, which is a convex that can be solved efficiently, to optimize the weighting window function with both amplitude and phase, expecting to offer better imaging performance, especially on PSLR, SNR loss, and mainlobe width. According to this approach and its modified form, we are able to design window functions to optimize the PSLR or the SNR loss under different kinds of flexible and practical constraints. Compared to the ordinary real-valued and symmetric window functions, like the Taylor window, the designed window functions are complex-valued and can be asymmetric. By using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) point target imaging simulation, we show that the optimized weighting window function can clearly show the weak target hidden in the sidelobes of the strong target.