Theory of SAR Signature Defocus Morphology for Arbitrary 3-D Target Motion Over Terrain Relief

This paper generates analytic equations for predicting the 2-D defocus morphology of the signature smears within spotlight synthetic aperture radar imagery, which are induced by targets having arbitrary 3-D motion. One primary application of such 3-D target motion is to enable the inclusion of terrain relief in the signatures smears due to surface targets. These mathematical techniques can predict the detailed imagery shapes of such induced signature smears, including width and interference effects. These methods provide an accurate and effective tool in predicting the shape, extent, and location of the defocused smears due to surface targets that are subject to terrain relief.