Motion compensation for ultra wide band SAR

The character of ultra wide band (UWB) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data acquired from an airborne platform invalidates most conventional SAR batch processing algorithms. This paper describes an algorithm that combines wavenumber domain processing with a procedure that enables motion compensation to be applied as a function of target range and azimuth angle. First, data are processed with nominal motion compensation applied, partially focusing the image, then the motion compensation of individual subpatches is refined. The results show that the proposed algorithm is effective in compensating for deviations from a straight flight path, from both a performance and a computational efficiency point of view.