Image formation techniques for Vehicle-Mounted Forward-Looking Ground Penetrating SAR

A vehicle-mounted forward-looking ground penetrate synthetic aperture radar (VMFL-GPSAR) is newly developed in China for real-time mine detection. The VMFL-GPSAR is an impulse radar system. With a 6 meter long antenna array, the radar can output 0.15 m by 0.15 m real-time images at a velocity of 15 Km/h. This paper presents some key techniques in developing the system, including antenna dispersion compensation, channel equalization, RFI suppression, fast backprojection image formation algorithm and along range multi-look image enhance algorithm. Tests conducted in Changsha last year indicate that the system can detect both metallic and plastic landmines.