Straight Conducting Thin Wire Detection Using Stripmap SAR

Detection of thin wires for different purposes is a frequently studied subject in the literature. It is aimed in this study to investigate the EM behavior of conducting thin wires. The radar cross section (RCS) value of a thin wire varies depending on the angle of incidence and frequency of the electromagnetic wave. Wire targets are considered in this study as cylindrical object, and the monostatic RCS simulation results are obtained depending on the frequency and the angle of incidence of the wave. As a result of these simulations, it has been surprisingly observed that the RCS value increased with the decrease in frequency in case for oblique incidence angle for thin wires, while for normal incidence angles we observed an inverse relationship as expected. High range and cross range resolution are needed for the high detection accuracy and at the same time to distinguish the multiple wires. In this study, to meet these requirements stripmap mode SAR system is established experimentally with high bandwidth signal. Time Domain Back Projection (TDBP) algorithm is applied to the measured SAR raw data and SAR images of wires are obtained. Finally, the frequency dependent detection and ranging accuracy for the thin wires lying on the ground in the target area is observed.