Use of frequency-randomized SAR waveforms for the detection and mitigation of small-motion effects in precision RCS measurement

The use of SAR and ISAR imaging is an important tool in the laboratory RCS characterization of scattering patterns across signature critical platforms. Despite measures to the contrary, air turbulence and mechanical vibration can produce unwanted complex perturbations of the target during the imaging process. The slow sweep time of many laboratory stepped-frequency CW radars means that a target can undergo significant motion even during a sweep, leading to substantial and time-varying defocusing of range profiles, unsuited to conventional motion-correction schemes. Model code was written to provide simulations of representative complex motions for a string-suspended target. Comparison of images produced using monotonic and randomized waveforms could detail the presence and pattern of very small motion-related changes in RCS. The ability to do this was found to have a complex dependence on the relative lengths of the radar sweep time and the characteristic oscillation period of the motion. When the sweep time and oscillation period are comparable, it may be possible to accurately retrieve the target´s entire motion history, from the phase perturbation recoverable from the difference of the monotonic and randomized waveforms in the raw frequency domain. This can then be applied back to the data as a motion correction.