Radar image reconstruction in layered inhomogeneous media by discrete model fitting method

The authors have been studying radar image reconstruction based on the discrete model fitting method to realize high performance subsurface sensing for various applications, such as detection of buried pipes and archeological research. This method assumes that targets consist of point scatterers, and a model fitting with nonlinear least-squares reconstructs the high-resolution image of the targets and layers. Moreover, this algorithm can be applied to an arbitrarily arranged array and reconstructs a much sharper image than the conventional aperture synthesis even if the size of the array aperture is restricted. In the present paper, the authors extend the discrete model fitting method so that it can handle the problem of an image reconstruction of point targets embedded in a layered inhomogeneous medium.