Abstract
Microwave staring correlated imaging (MSCI), with the technical capability of high-resolution imaging on relatively stationary targets, is a promising approach for remote sensing. For the purpose of continuous observation of a fixed key area, a tethered floating aerostat is often used as the carrying platform for MSCI radar system; however, its non-cooperative random motion of the platform caused by winds and its unbalance will result in blurred imaging, and even in imaging failure. This paper presents a method that takes into account the instabilities of the platform, combined with an adaptive variable suspension (AVS) and a position and orientation system (POS), which can automatically control the antenna beam orientation to the target area and measure dynamically the position and attitude of the stochastic radiation radar array, respectively. By analyzing the motion feature of aerostat platform, the motion model of the radar array is established, then its real-time position vector and attitude angles of each antenna can be represented; meanwhile the selection matrix of beam coverage is introduced to indicate the dynamic illumination of the radar antenna beam in the overall imaging area. Due to the low-speed discrete POS data, a curve-fitting algorithm can be used to estimate its accurate position vector and attitude of each antenna at each high-speed sampling time during the imaging period. Finally, the MSCI model based on the unsteady aerostat platform is set up. In the simulations, the proposed scheme is validated such that under the influence of different unstable platform movements, a better imaging performance can be achieved compared with the conventional MSCI method.
Highlights
Microwave remote sensing has the ability to work in all day and all weather conditions [1], it has been used in many civilian and military fields, such as disaster monitoring and military reconnaissance [2]
Aiming at the above problems, this paper proposes a Microwave staring correlated imaging (MSCI) method based on unsteady aerostat platform
A novel MSCI method based on unsteady aerostat platform is proposed, where the MSCI radar array is carried by adaptive variable suspension (AVS) to keep its antenna beam orientation to the target in the non-cooperative motion of the platform caused by the wind etc., and the position and orientation system (POS) is used to dynamically measure the position and the attitude of the antenna array
Summary
Microwave remote sensing has the ability to work in all day and all weather conditions [1], it has been used in many civilian and military fields, such as disaster monitoring and military reconnaissance [2]. To compensate the gain–phase error in MSCI, Zhou et al propose a sparse auto-calibration method, which is a cyclic iteration processing combined target reconstruction with gain–phase error estimation [18]. Reference [23] focuses on sparsity-driven MSCI with array position error (APE) and propose two sparse auto-calibration imaging algorithms in sparse Bayesian learning framework to compensate the APE. The antenna array with multiple transmitters and one receiver is mounted on the aerostat platform combined with an adaptive variable suspension (AVS), and the position and orientation system (POS) located at the center of the array, controlling its antenna beam orientation to the target area and measuring dynamically its position and attitude during imaging process.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
