An Improved RD Algorithm for Maneuvering Bistatic Forward-Looking SAR Imaging with a Fixed Transmitter

In order to improve the azimuth resolution beyond what monostatic synthetic aperture radar (SAR) can achieve in the forward-looking area, an asymmetric configuration bistatic SAR system and its imaging algorithm are proposed in this paper. The transmitter is mounted on a fixed platform in side-looking mode while the receiver moves along a nonlinear trajectory in forward-looking mode. Due to the high velocity and acceleration of the maneuvering platform in both along-track and height direction, the traditional algorithms are no longer applicable. In this paper, a new algorithm based on the high precise 2-D frequency spectrum is proposed, which takes high-order Taylor series expansion terms of the slant range into consideration. The proposed algorithm compensates high-order range-azimuth coupling terms to guarantee the focus accuracy in SAR imaging. The simulation results and error analysis validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm and the correctness of our analysis.