Simultaneous Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging and Moving Target Indication

1. Currently, SAR and MTI are performed on separate platforms SAR assumes objects in scene are stationary MTI treats stationary objects as clutter We desire to develop general solution for simultaneous and synergistic SAR/MTI Returns from moving targets often smaller than clutter return Simultaneous Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging and Moving Target Indication PI: Dr. Jim Stiles (jstiles@rsl.ku.edu) PhD Student: Geoff Akers, Major, USAF (akersg@ittc.ku.edu) Problem Statement Planned Approach • Develop 3D map of scene—3rd D is radial velocity • Multiple apertures—increases number of observations while the number of unknowns remains the same • Also allows Doppler ambiguities to be resolved • Wide timewidth—increases Doppler resolution • Wide bandwidth—increases range resolution • SAR images estimate the clutter statistics in the target domain • Images and multiple resolutions could provide multiple detection statistics leading to fewer false alarms and a higher probability of dectection Artist's view of TerraSAR-X in space http://www.infoterra.de/terrasar-x.html “Tracking Via Keystoning,” Dr. D. Zasada, 2006, MITRE Corp Important Issues Project Impact • SAR and MTI have different requirements • SAR requires wide bandwidth for spatial resolution • MTI requires wide timewidth to resolve target velocity • MTI needs to scan large areas quickly • Using SAR for MTI • Space Time Adaptive Processing (STAP) for MTI requires an estimate of the data covariance matrix in data domain • The variance is due to clutter • SAR imagery is a measure of the clutter return • Influence future designs of DoD radar architectures • Moving toward the USAF goal of “Provide persistent situation awareness” by enabling timely intelligence of static and dynamic scenes • Enable current DoD SAR platforms to simultaneously perform limited MTI