A new approach for estimation and compensation of target translational motion in ISAR imaging

A novel technique for estimation and compensation of radar target translational motion is presented. Its theoretical derivation and its application to real radar data for different classes of targets (ships, aircrafts) are discussed. The proposed algorithm is based on a closed-loop processing chain, that processes groups of received pulses carrying out a frequency-domain analysis to estimate the target unknown relative motion, and then uses the estimated range-rate to compensate pulse-to-pulse range shift. The simplicity and robustness of the proposed approach make it especially suitable for real-time applications, and it can be the basis or the initial step of many different radar imaging processing strategies.