Target Identification with Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging

SAR is a type of imaging radar in which the relative movement of the antenna with respect to the target is utilized. Through the simultaneous processing of the radar reflections over the movement of the antenna via the Range Doppler algorithm (RDA), the superior resolution of a theoretical wider antenna, termed synthetic aperture, is obtained. The long-term goal of this ongoing project is to develop a simulation in which realistic SAR images can be generated and used for SAR Automatic Target Recognition (ATR). Current and past Master¿s theses on ATR were restricted to a small data set of Man-portable Surveillance and Target Acquisition Radar (MSTAR) images as most SAR images for military ATR are not released for public use. Also, with an in-house SAR image generation scheme the parameters of noise, target orientation, the elevation angle or look angle to the antenna from the target and other parameters can be directly controlled and modified to best serve ATR purposes or other applications such as three-dimensional SAR holography.