High-Resolution Through-the-Wall Radar Imaging Using Beamspace MUSIC

The MUSIC algorithm is a high-resolution direction finding technique which has been successfully applied to enhance radar imaging in inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR). Although this signal subspace-based method has proven effective when dealing with point targets and high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), it may fail to work when directly applied to extended targets or target returns of low SNR. The Beamspace MUSIC (BS-MUSIC), in which the MUSIC algorithm is applied to multiple beams, is capable of locating spatially extended targets in low SNR environments. In this paper, we consider BS-MUSIC as an image formation method for indoor radar imaging problems and sensing through-the-wall applications. We compare BS-MUSIC performance to conventional beamforming and element-space MUSIC. Imaging results, using both synthesized and real data, demonstrate the advantages of the proposed algorithm in depicting targets behind walls.