Circular SAR imaging using frequency and angular correlation techniques in a clutter environment

This paper outlines a brief study on imaging by circular SAR using two different correlation techniques in a clutter environment. The first technique calls for correlation between images over frequency using frequency correlation function (FCF) measurement; whereas, the second involves correlation images over aperture using angular correlation (ACF) measurement. Microwave SAR imaging experiments are conducted at a frequency range of 7-13 GHz to study the relative effectiveness of these SAR processing algorithms in a clutter environment. It was found that for imaging of point scatterers heavily embedded in clutter, the former (ACF technique) surpasses not only the latter (FCF technique), but also the conventional SAR processing approach, resulting in clearer images and hence enhanced target-to-clutter ratio.