Synthetic aperture radar imaging algorithm customized for programmable optronic processor in the application of full-scene synthetic aperture radar image formation

Abstract

With the high programmability of a spatial light modulator (SLM), a newly developed synthetic aperture radar (SAR) optronic processor is capable of focusing SAR data with different parameters. The embedded SLM, encoding SAR data into light signal in the processor, has a limited loading resolution of 1920×1080. When the dimension of processed SAR data increases to tens of thousands in either range or azimuth direction, SAR data should be input and focused block by block. And then, part of the imaging results is mosaicked to offer a full-scene SAR image. In squint mode, however, Doppler centroid will shift signal spectrum in the azimuth direction and make phase filters, loaded by another SLM, unable to cover the entire signal spectrum. It brings about a poor imaging result. Meanwhile, the imaging result, shifted away from the center of light output, will cause difficulties in subsequent image mosaic. We present an SAR image formation algorithm designed to solve these problems when processing SAR data of a large volume in low-squint case. It could not only obtain high-quality imaging results, but also optimize the subsequent process of image mosaic with optimal system cost and efficiency. Experimental results validate the performance of this proposed algorithm in optical full-scene SAR imaging.