Some Reflections on Bistatic SAR of Forward-Looking Configuration

Abstract

Forward-looking imaging has many potential applications, but it is impossible with the usual monostatic synthetic aperture radar (SAR) principle. Through the bistatic SAR configuration, forward-looking imaging can be realized for one of the bistatic platforms. This letter designs a bistatic configuration with a stationary transmitter and a forward-looking airborne receiver. It then analyzes the 2-D resolution and finds out which geometric parameter affects the imaging ability mostly. Besides, it gives out the signal formulation in the frequency domain and shows its imaging characteristics. Then, an imaging method is chosen for this special configuration, and the simulation results are exhibited, which validate the correctness of the analysis and prove the 2-D imaging ability of forward-looking bistatic SAR.