We introduce a dispersive point target model based on scattering by a particle in the far-field. The synthetic aperture imaging problem is then expanded to identify these targets and recover their locations and frequency dependent reflectivities. We show that Kirchhoff migration (KM) is able to identify dispersive point targets in an imaging region. However, KM predicts target locations that are shifted in range from their true locations. We derive an estimate for this range shift for a single target. We also show that because of this range shift we cannot recover the complex-valued frequency dependent reflectivity, but we can recover its absolute value and hence the radar cross-section (RCS) of the target. Simulation results show that we can detect, recover the approximate location, and recover the RCS for dispersive point targets thereby opening opportunities to classifying important differences between multiple targets such as their sizes or material compositions.
Motivated by applications in unmanned aerial based ground penetrating radar for detecting buried landmines, we consider the problem of imaging small point like scatterers situated in a lossy medium below a random rough surface. Both the random rough surface and the absorption in the lossy medium significantly impede the target detection and imaging process. Using principal component analysis we effectively remove the reflection from the air-soil interface. We then use a modification of the classical synthetic aperture radar imaging functional to image the targets. This imaging method introduce…
In this paper, we present 3D high resolution radar imaging process at millimeter-Wave (mmWave) frequencies by creating the effect of a large aperture synthetically. We use a low cost fully integrated Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar operating at $\rm 79\;GHz$ and then perform Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging in the near-filed zone. At the end, we conduct a real experiment and present the reconstructed image.
In this paper, we propose graph signal processing based imaging for synthetic aperture radar. We present a modified version of fused least absolute shrinkage and selection operator to cater for graph structure of the radar image. We solve the cost function via alternating direction method of multipliers. Our method provides improved denoising and resolution enhancing capabilities. It can also accommodate the compressed sensing framework quite easily. Experimental results corroborate the validity of our proposed methodology.
This report presents a connection between the physical acoustics of an object and the topology of the space of echoes resulting from a circular synthetic aperture sonar (CSAS) collection of that object. A simple theoretical model is developed that yields a precise, yet qualitative, description of the space of echoes. This theoretical model is validated in simulation and with experimental data from a laboratory sonar system.
We consider a synthetic aperture imaging configuration, such as synthetic aperture radar (SAR), where we want to first separate reflections from moving targets from those coming from a stationary background, and then to image separately the moving and the stationary reflectors. For this purpose, we introduce a representation of the data as a third order tensor formed from data coming from partially overlapping sub-apertures. We then apply a tensor robust principal component analysis (TRPCA) to the tensor data which separates them into the parts coming from the stationary and moving reflectors.…
The goal of synthetic aperture imaging is to estimate the reflectivity of a remote region of interest by processing data gathered with a moving sensor which emits periodically a signal and records the backscattered wave. We introduce and analyze a high-resolution interferometric method for synthetic aperture imaging through an unknown scattering medium which distorts the wave. The method builds on the coherent interferometric (CINT) approach which uses empirical cross-correlations of the measurements to mitigate the distortion, at the expense of a loss of resolution of the image. The new metho…
We have recently introduced a modification of the multiple signal classification (MUSIC) method for synthetic aperture radar. This method depends on a tunable, user-defined parameter, $ε$, that allows for quantitative high-resolution imaging. It requires however, relative large single-to-noise ratios (SNR) to work effectively. Here, we first identify the fundamental mechanism in that method that produces high-resolution images. Then we introduce a modification to Kirchhoff Migration (KM) that uses the same mechanism to produces tunable, high-resolution images. This modified KM method can be ap…
Due to the rapid increase in 76 GHz automotive spectrum use in recent years, wireless interference is becoming a legitimate area of concern. However, the recent rise in interest of automated vehicles (AVs) has also spurred new growth and adoption of low frequency vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications in and around the 5.8 GHz unlicensed bands, opening the possibility for communications spectrum reuse in the form of joint radar-communications (JRC). In this work, we present a low frequency 5.9 GHz side-looking polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) for automotive use, utilizing a rang…
We present a framework for simulating realistic inverse synthetic aperture radar images of automotive targets at millimeter wave frequencies. The model incorporates radar scattering phenomenology of commonly found vehicles along with range-Doppler based clutter and receiver noise. These images provide insights into the physical dimensions of the target, the number of wheels and the trajectory undertaken by the target. The model is experimentally validated with measurement data gathered from an automotive radar. The images from the simulation database are subsequently classified using both trad…
The paper defines a new coordinate system that was developed in 1977-78 for the world's first digital synthetic aperture radar (SAR) ground processor for images from the Seasat-A satellite. The coordinate system is for the range-Doppler paradigm in the context of a spaceborne platform orbiting a rotating planet. The mathematical expressions for the azimuth FM rate, isodoppler lines, target illumination trajectories and antenna attitude determination from Doppler centroid measurements are derived. The method for transforming the SAR images from that SAR digital signal processor that used these …
Fast Matrix Inversion and Determinant Computation for Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar
Graduate Program of Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of Calgary（卡尔加里大学电气与计算机工程研究生项目）；Signal Processing Group, Departamento de Estatística, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco（伯南布哥联邦大学统计系信号处理组）；Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Calgary（卡尔加里大学电气与计算机工程系）；Laboratório de Computação Científica e Análise Numérica, Universidade Federal de Alagoas（阿拉戈阿斯联邦大学科学计算与数值分析实验室）
Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) for military applications is one of the core processes towards enhancing intelligencer and autonomously operating military platforms. Spurred by this and given that Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) presents several advantages over its counterpart data domains, this paper surveys and assesses current SAR ATR architectures that employ the most popular dataset for the SAR domain, namely the Moving and Stationary Target Acquisition and Recognition (MSTAR) dataset. Based on the current methodology trends, we propose a taxonomy for the SAR ATR architectures, along wi…
Synthetic aperture laser radar has higher resolution, so requires higher modulated bandwidth. Because the data volume of chirp or pulse coding schemes is too large, it brings much pressure to data acquisition and data processing. So, we can use dechirp to reduce the amount of data. However, there is a seriously non-linear problem in phase modulation, which strictly prohibited the dechirp usage. Therefore, in order to solve the above problems, we propose a method based on Electro-Optic Modulators to achieve a large-bandwidth chirp signal. Meanwhile, give a method to resolve the seriously non-li…
A problem with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is that due to the poor penetrating action of electromagnetic waves within solid bodies, the ability to observe through distributed targets is precluded. In this context, indeed, imaging is only possible on targets distribute on the scene surface. This work describes an imaging method based on the analysis of micro-motions present on volcanoes and generated by the underground Earth's heat. Processing the coherent vibrational information embedded on the single SAR image, in the single-look-complex configuration, the sound information is exploited, p…
A problem with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is that, due to the poor penetrating action of electromagnetic waves inside solid bodies, the capability to observe inside distributed targets is precluded. Under these conditions, imaging action is provided only on the surface of distributed targets. The present work describes an imaging method based on the analysis of micro-movements on the Khnum-Khufu Pyramid, which are usually generated by background seismic waves. The results obtained prove to be very promising, as high-resolution full 3D tomographic imaging of the pyramid's interior and subsu…
Synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) image reconstruction, or beamforming as it is often referred to within the SAS community, comprises a class of computationally intensive algorithms for creating coherent high-resolution imagery from successive spatially varying sonar pings. Image reconstruction is usually performed topside because of the large compute burden necessitated by the procedure. Historically, image reconstruction required significant assumptions in order to produce real-time imagery within an unmanned underwater vehicle's (UUV's) size, weight, and power (SWaP) constraints. However, thes…
Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is widely used for ground surface classification since it utilizes information on vegetation and soil unavailable in optical observation. Image classification often employs convolutional neural networks. However, they have serious problems such as long learning time and resolution degradation in their convolution and pooling processes. In this paper, we propose complex-valued reservoir computing (CVRC) to deal with complex-valued images in interferometric SAR (InSAR). We classify InSAR image data by using CVRC successfully with a higher resolution and a lower com…
Automotive targets undergoing turns in road junctions offer large synthetic apertures over short dwell times to automotive radars that can be exploited for obtaining fine cross-range resolution. Likewise, the wide bandwidths of the automotive radar signal yield high-range resolution profiles. Together, they are exploited for generating inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) images that offer rich information regarding the target vehicle's size, shape, and trajectory which is useful for object recognition and classification. However, a key requirement for ISAR is translation motion compensatio…
In this paper, we study the trajectory and resource optimization for lightweight rotary-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system. The UAV's mission is to perform SAR imaging of a given area of interest (AoI). In this setup, real-time communication with a base station (BS) is required to facilitate live mission planning for the drone. For this purpose, a non-convex mixed-integer non-linear program (MINLP) is formulated such that the UAV resources and three-dimensional (3D) trajectory are jointly optimized for maximization of the drone radar grou…
Deep learning methods can be found in many medical imaging applications. Recently, those methods were applied directly to the RF ultrasound multi-channel data to enhance the quality of the reconstructed images. In this paper, we apply a deep neural network to medical ultrasound imaging in the beamforming stage. Specifically, we train the network using simulated multi-channel data from two arrays with different sizes, using a variety of direction of arrival (DOA) angles, and test its generalization performance on real cardiac data. We demonstrate that our method can be used to improve image qua…
Multi-Frame Blind Manifold Deconvolution for Rotating Synthetic Aperture Imaging
School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Kent（肯特大学数学、统计与精算科学学院）；Department of Computer Science, University College London（伦敦大学学院计算机科学系）
Many countries in the world are contaminated with landmines. Several thousand casualties occur every year. Although there are certain types of mines that can be detected from a safe stand-off position with tools, humanitarian demining is still mostly done by hand. As a new approach, an unmanned aerial system (UAS) equipped with a ground penetrating synthetic aperture radar (GPSAR) was developed, which is used to detect landmines, cluster munition, grenades, and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The measurement system consists of a multicopter, a total station, an inertial measurement unit (…
University of Victoria（维多利亚大学）；QB Information Technologies (1QBit)（1QB信息技术公司（1QBit））
The focus of this work is to explore the use of quantum annealing solvers for the problem of phase unwrapping of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. Although solutions to this problem exist based on network programming, these techniques do not scale well to larger-sized images. Our approach involves formulating the problem as a quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) problem, which can be solved using a quantum annealer. Given that present embodiments of quantum annealers remain limited in the number of qubits they possess, we decompose the problem into a set of subproblems that …
A Conditional Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Model for RFI Mitigation in Synthetic Aperture Interferometric Radiometer
School of Electronic Information and Communications, Huazhong University of Science and Technology（华中科技大学电子信息与通信学院）；National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Multi-Spectral Information Processing, Huazhong University of Science and Technology（华中科技大学多谱段信息技术国家重点实验室）
Ground penetrating radar mounted on micro aerial vehicle (MAV) is a promising tool to assist humanitarian landmine clearance. However, the quality of synthetic aperture radar images depends on accurate and precise motion estimation of the radar antennas as well as generating informative viewpoints with the MAV. This paper presents a complete and automatic airborne ground-penetrating synthetic aperture radar (GPSAR) system. The system consists of a spatially calibrated and temporally synchronized industrial grade sensor suite that enables navigation above ground level, radar imaging, and optica…
The stretch processing architecture is commonly used for frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar due to its inexpensive hardware, low sampling rate, and simple architecture. However, the stretch processing architecture is not able to achieve optimal Signal to Noise ratio (SNR) in comparison to the matched-filter architecture. In this paper, we aim to propose a method whereby stretch processing can achieve optimal SNR. Hence, we develop a novel processing method to enable applying a matched filter to the output of the stretch processing. The proposed architecture achieves optimal SNR w…
Three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound (US) imaging addresses the limitation in field-of-view (FOV) in conventional two-dimensional (2D) US imaging by providing 3D viewing of the anatomy. 3D US imaging has been extensively adapted for diagnosis and image-guided surgical intervention. However, conventional approaches to implement 3D US imaging require either expensive and sophisticated 2D array transducers, or external actuation mechanisms to move a one-dimensional array mechanically. Here, we propose a 3D US imaging mechanism using actuated acoustic reflector instead of the sensor elements for volu…
We analyze synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging of complex ground scenes that contain both stationary and moving targets. In the usual SAR acquisition scheme, we consider ways to preprocess the data so as to separate the contributions of the moving targets from those due to stationary background reflectors. Both components of the data, that is, reflections from stationary and moving targets, are considered as signal that is needed for target imaging and tracking, respectively. The approach we use is to decompose the data matrix into a low rank and a sparse part. This decomposition enables us…
University of Perugia（佩鲁贾大学）；University of L’Aquila（拉奎拉大学）
Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry (InSAR) is performed using repeat-pass geometry. InSAR technique is used to estimate the topographic reconstruction of the earth surface. The main problem of the range-Doppler focusing technique is the nature of the two-dimensional SAR result, affected by the layover indetermination. In order to resolve this problem, a minimum of two sensor acquisitions, separated by a baseline and extended in the cross-slant-range, are needed. However, given its multi-temporal nature, these techniques are vulnerable to atmosphere and Earth environment parameters v…
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology（美国国家航空航天局喷气推进实验室，加州理工学院）
California's Central Valley is the national agricultural center, producing 1/4 of the nation's food. However, land in the Central Valley is sinking at a rapid rate (as much as 20 cm per year) due to continued groundwater pumping. Land subsidence has a significant impact on infrastructure resilience and groundwater sustainability. In this study, we aim to identify specific regions with different temporal dynamics of land displacement and find relationships with underlying geological composition. Then, we aim to remotely estimate geologic composition using interferometric synthetic aperture rada…
University of California Berkeley（加州大学伯克利分校）；The Ohio State University（俄亥俄州立大学）；German Aerospace Center DLR（德国航空航天中心）；University of Valencia（瓦伦西亚大学）；National Observatory of Athens（雅典国家天文台）；United Nations Satellite Centre（联合国卫星中心）；University of Oxford（牛津大学）；NVIDIA（英伟达公司）；Universidad de Antioquia（安蒂奥基亚大学）
With climate change predicted to increase the likelihood of landslide events, there is a growing need for rapid landslide detection technologies that help inform emergency responses. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is a remote sensing technique that can provide measurements of affected areas independent of weather or lighting conditions. Usage of SAR, however, is hindered by domain knowledge that is necessary for the pre-processing steps and its interpretation requires expert knowledge. We provide simplified, pre-processed, machine-learning ready SAR datacubes for four globally located landslid…
