Imaging of High-Speed Aerial Targets with ISAR Installed on a Moving Vessel

An inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) technique is proposed to acquire high-resolution steady images of high-speed aerial target with radar installed on a moving vessel. The phase changes due to target motion and attitude perturbation of the vessel are compensated. A 2D ISAR imaging method is enhanced to acquire 3D-compatible images of uncooperative targets. The target motion parameters are fine-tuned iteratively to better focus the target image. A (\zeta _{h}, \zeta _{v}) plane is proposed to display 3D targets for visual-like perception. The 2D ISAR images thus focused preserve features of the original 3D targets, including shape and size. Imaging of several aerial targets are simulated to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approach.