An approach for suppression sidelobes of strong clutters in echo domain based on APES

Side-lobes of strong targets outside synthetic aperture radar (SAR) observation region alias to SAR observation region in many cases. It makes adverse impact on weak targets detection. Strong clutters outside SAR observation region need to be suppressed. This paper proposes a new approach of suppressing side-lobes based on amplitude and phase estimation (APES). The locations of strong clutters are determined based on the shape of their hyperbolic curve in echo domain by Hough transformation. The scattering coefficients of strong clutters are estimated by APES and then suppressed in echo domain. SAR image generated from suppressed echo can avoid the adverse impact of strong clutters on weak targets detection effectively. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the approach.