Improved Ship and Small Boat Classification Using Hybrid Synthetic Aperture Radar - Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR-ISAR) Imaging

This effort is to develop techniques to provide improved ship and small boat classification using hybrid synthetic aperture radar inverse synthetic aperture radar (SAR-ISAR) imaging. Both ISAR and SAR exploit target viewing angle diversity to form the cross range dimension of the image. The defined difference is the mechanism of the obtaining that diversity. SAR obtains the azimuth angle diversity of stationary targets by using the radar platform motion. The image plan of SAR is know and horizontal (plan view) because the motion is know very precisely and images can be formed over a long time and thus a large angle. ISAR primarily uses the moving platform's motion (yaw, pitch and roll) to obtain the angle diversity. The ISAR image plane is not readily known. In ISAR there is indeed azimuth angle diversity due to radar platform motion that has not yet been exploited due to the challenges of compensating for the periodic and unknown ship and small boat motions.