Demonstration of vector velocity estimation with airborne SAR-GMTI

The combination of synthetic aperture radar and space-time adaptive processing for airborne moving target indication radar allows the use of long, potentially sparse arrays, wide bandwidths, and long coherent processing intervals (CPIs), all of which enable detection of a greater variety of targets than is possible with traditional systems. By exploiting the blurring effect of moving targets in SAR imagery, both components of target velocity may be simultaneously estimated in each CPI using this scheme. This approach to vector velocity estimation is demonstrated using data from an experimental 12-channel UHF airborne radar developed by MIT Lincoln Laboratory.