Range-Doppler imaging and multiple scatter-point localization

The range-Doppler imaging of a moving target by an inverse synthetic aperture radar is investigated from the viewpoint of multiple scatter-point localization. Motion compensation and image formation are solved simultaneously as a maximum likelihood estimation problem. When some reasonable assumptions apply, DFT and FFT can be introduced to increase computational efficiency. When the orbital motion of the target is described by a quadratic range-time function, only a two-dimensional search is needed. A simplifying motion compensation and image formation algorithm is derived, and computer simulation results are given.