An Improved UAV Bi-SAR Imaging Algorithm with Two-Dimensional Spatial Variant Range Cell Migration Correction and Azimuth Non-Linear Phase Equalization

Abstract

The transmitter and receiver of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) bistatic synthetic aperture radar (Bi-SAR) are respectively carried on different UAV platforms, which has the advantages of flexible movement and strong concealment, and has broad application prospects in remote sensing fields. However, the range cell migration (RCM) and azimuth non-linear phase (ANP) of UAV Bi-SAR are seriously spatially variant along the range and azimuth directions, while the UAV Bi-SAR has a short operating range, complex trajectory and wide azimuth beam. Aiming at the problem that the RCM and ANP of UAV Bi-SAR in spotlight mode are difficult to correct and equalize due to the severe two-dimensional (2D) spatial variation, an RCM correction (RCMC) and ANP equalization (ANPE) method based on Doppler domain blocking is proposed. First, the azimuth spatial variance of RCM is eliminated by Doppler blocking, and the range spatial variant RCMC is realized by RNCS. Second, by combining Doppler blocking with azimuth nonlinear chirp scaling (ANCS), this method can adapt to ANPE with larger width and more severe spatial variation. At last, the criteria of Doppler blocking are given in detail, and the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by UAV Bi-SAR real data and computer simulation.