Scanning Radar Forward-Looking Imaging Under High-Speed Platform by Accurate Profile-Phase Deconvolution Method

Deconvolution methods can be applied in airborne scanning radar to enhance its angular resolution for improving the collision avoidance ability in the forward-looking direction. However, as the movement speed of the airborne platform increases, the traditional convolution signal model cannot be applied because of the model errors in the amplitude profile and Doppler phase. In this article, an accurate profile-phase deconvolution method is proposed to achieve scanning radar forward-looking super-resolution imaging, particularly for high-speed platforms. On one hand, a profile-phase convolution (PPC) model is established by analyzing the influence of high-speed platform on echo amplitude profile and Doppler phase. The proposed model accurately captures the variation of beam dwell time caused by the coupling of platform motion and beam scanning, which directly affects the echo amplitude profile. On the other hand, relying on the proposed PPC model, an adaptive regularization (AR) deconvolution method is derived to avoid hyperparameter selection. Point-target and surface-target results demonstrate that the proposed PPC model and the AR deconvolution method are competent for super-resolution imaging on high-speed platforms.