Polarimetric Boat Detection and Classification

MARK Resources Inc has developed processing algorithms to classify small ships based on 3-d scatterer positions extracted from ISAR data. This processing relies on measuring range-Doppler positions of selected scatterers over selected imaging intervals. Extending the processing to small boats entails overcoming degraded resolution due to larger and rougher boat motions, smaller physical separations of scatterers, and weaker backscattering. We propose to utilize polarimetric ISAR data to make measurements to the accuracy necessary for the successful extension. To this end, we have teamed with The Ohio State University and Lockheed Martin, who have developed polarimetric processing algorithms for the detection and classification of small-RCS ground targets in SAR data. We jointly propose to extend the polarimetric detection and classification algorithms to ISAR data of small boats, to incorporate them into the extraction of 3-d scatterer positions, and to classify boats based on both scatterer positions and polarimetric characteristics. We further propose to collect X-band polarimetric data on targets of opportunity, and to test our algorithms on these data.