Motion compensation in ISAR imaging using the registration-restoration-fusion approach

The distortion in the inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) image of a target is a result of small time-varying perturbed motion experienced by the target during the image integration period and is attributed to a phase modulation effect of the radar return from the target. Large distortion in ISAR images of a moving target has been investigated and demonstrated under controlled experiments and simulation. Results from the analysis suggest that severe distortion is attributed to the phase modulation effect where a time-varying Doppler frequency provides the smearing mechanism. For applications of target identification, the registration-restoration-fusion method has been developed to refocus the distorted ISAR images. This method has been applied to both the experimental and simulated ISAR data. Results demonstrate that the registration-restoration-fusion motion compensation approach can improve the distorted ISAR image better than what can be achieved by conventional Fourier transform methods. This study also adds insight into the distortion mechanisms that affect the ISAR images of a target in motion.