Ground moving target indication and parameter estimation algorithm using deramp space-time adaptive processing

Abstract

Deramp space-time adaptive processing (Deramp-STAP) algorithm has been validated in its effectiveness in reducing the required channels to enable ground moving target indication (GMTI) for multi-channel synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems. However, the parameter estimation for the moving target, including the critical radial velocity, is not accurate enough, and the radial velocity is always approximated by the equivalent velocity obtained by the Deramp operation. For the indication and imaging of ground moving targets, the accurate estimation of the radial velocity is of importance to improve the signal-clutter-noise-ratio of STAP and estimate the initial azimuth position of the moving target. A method for GMTI and the corresponding parameter estimation using Deramp-STAP is proposed. Compared with the traditional Deramp-STAP algorithms, the proposed algorithm utilizes the equivalent velocity estimated by Radon transform to remove the linear range migration before STAP and figure out where the moving target is located in the azimuth frequency domain. To estimate the radial velocity more accurately, the fast Fourier transform along the spatial direction is performed on the pixel where the moving target is located in the azimuth frequency domain after the Deramp operation, and then the radial velocity can be obtained through the spatial spectrum analysis. Finally, the estimated radial velocity is applied to construct the azimuth compression function for the moving target imaging, and then the initial azimuth position can be estimated. Several simulation experiments have been implemented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.