Detecting 3-D rotational motion and extracting target information from the principal component analysis of scatterer range histories

ISAR imagery of ships are complicated by the 3-D motion of the target, which causes blurring in the imagery. A technique is proposed which could help detect such motion and prove useful to both analyse the 3-D motion as well as possibly help to estimate the 3-D position of scatterers as a by-product of the analysis. The technique is based on principal component analysis of accurate scatterer range histories and is shown only in simulation. Future research should focus on practical application.