A Novel Range Compression Algorithm for Resolution Enhancement in GNSS-SARs

In this paper, a novel range compression algorithm for enhancing range resolutions of a passive Global Navigation Satellite System-based Synthetic Aperture Radar (GNSS-SAR) is proposed. In the proposed algorithm, within each azimuth bin, firstly range compression is carried out by correlating a reflected GNSS intermediate frequency (IF) signal with a synchronized direct GNSS base-band signal in the range domain. Thereafter, spectrum equalization is applied to the compressed results for suppressing side lobes to obtain a final range-compressed signal. Both theoretical analysis and simulation results have demonstrated that significant range resolution improvement in GNSS-SAR images can be achieved by the proposed range compression algorithm, compared to the conventional range compression algorithm.