Analysis of Modeling and 2-D Resolution of Satellite–Missile Borne Bistatic Forward-Looking SAR

Bistatic synthetic aperture radar (SAR) has received increasing attention from researchers due to the advantage of achieving forward-looking imaging, which cannot be achieved by a monostatic SAR system. Most of the existing studies focus on airborne bistatic SAR imaging, while the research on satellite–missile borne bistatic SAR system is relatively scarce. In this article, the characteristics of the satellite–missile borne bistatic forward-looking SAR (SMBFSAR) system is mainly studied. First, the method of modeling an SMBFSAR system, including the establishment of the satellite orbit equation and coordinate system transformation, is described at length. Then, the 2-D resolution of the SMBFSAR system is redefined, and the relationship between the 2-D resolution and the configuration of SMBFSAR is discussed in detail. Finally, the analysis of 2-D resolution of SMBFSAR system is illustrated by the simulation results of a ship target in different configurations.