Focusing vibrating targets in frequency-modulation continuous-wave-synthetic aperture radar with Doppler keystone transform

Vibrating targets generally induce sinusoidal micro-Doppler modulation in high resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR). They could cause defocused and ghost results by conventional imaging algorithms. This paper proposes a method on vibrating target imaging in frequency-modulation continuous-wave (FMCW) SAR systems. The continuous motion of sensor platform during pulse time is considered in the signal model. Based on Bessel series expansion of the signal in the azimuth direction, the influence of platform motion on the azimuth frequency is eliminated after dechirp and deskew. In addition, the range walk is compensated in the two-dimensional frequency domain by Doppler keystone transform. Next, using range cell migration correction, the azimuth quadratic phase compensation and the range curvature correction are made in range-Doppler domain for the focus of paired echoes. The residual video phase of paired echoes is eliminated, and vibration parameters are estimated to compensate in the sinusoidal modulation phase. Then the deghosted image of vibrating targets can be obtained. The proposed method is applicable to multiple targets with various vibrating states due to no need of a priori knowledge of targets. Finally, simulations are carried out to validate the effectiveness of the method in FMCW-SAR imaging of vibrating targets.