Nonsystematic Range Cell Migration Analysis and Autofocus Correction for Bistatic Forward-looking SAR

In general, autofocus methods integrated with frequency-domain imaging algorithms are instrumental to obtain a well-focused bistatic forward-looking synthetic aperture radar (BFSAR) image in the presence of motion errors. Nevertheless, before applying autofocus methods to correct the azimuth phase errors, range cell migration (RCM) should be eliminated by the RCM correction (RCMC) procedure in frequency-domain imaging algorithms. With motion errors being taken into account, there always exists some residual nonsystematic RCM (NsRCM), which refers to the residual migration components after the RCMC procedure. For the conventional side-looking SAR, NsRCM is caused by motion errors. On the other hand, NsRCM of BFSAR is originated from motion errors before RCMC and the NsRCM amplified by the RCMC procedure. In this paper, we analyze the different types of NsRCM in BFSAR imaging and their relationship. Based on the analyses, we propose an autofocus NsRCM correction scheme for BFSAR imagery using frequency-domain imaging algorithms that can eliminate the range-dependent NsRCM. The proposed scheme consists of three steps. First, for the BFSAR data after range compression and RCMC, a division procedure is carried out in the azimuth direction. The subblocks with the highest signal-to-clutter ratio along the range direction are selected after the azimuth segmentation procedure. Second, for the selected subblocks, the total NsRCM is estimated based on the minimum-entropy criterion. Based on the estimation results, different parts of the NsRCM are obtained by solving an ordinary differential equation. Third, a two-step compensation of the NsRCM is executed to reach the spatially variant correction. Simulations and experimental results are provided to demonstrate that our proposed scheme is effective for BFSAR imaging.