Method and system for detection and synthetic aperture imaging of a target

Abstract

A method and a system for detection and synthetic aperture (SA) imaging of a target are disclosed. The method may include illuminating a scene with a search signal transmitted from a moving platform, receiving a search return signal from a target present in the scene, and estimating, from the search return signal, the range and the angular location of the target. The method may also include generating an SA transmission signal and a local oscillator (LO) signal with a time delay therebetween based on the estimated range, and illuminating the scene with the SA transmission signal pointed along an imaging direction based on the estimated angular location of the target. The method may further include receiving an SA return signal from the target, mixing the SA return signal with the LO signal to generate SA signal data, and generating an SA image of the target from the SA signal data.