System, method and computer program product for reducing quadratic phase errors in synthetic aperture radar signals

Abstract

A method is provided for reducing quadratic phase errors in synthetic aperture radar signals from a plurality of range lines where each range line includes a plurality of azimuth positions. The method includes receiving a plurality of slow-time samples representing radar signals for a plurality of azimuth positions for a plurality of range lines. A plurality of corrected samples and an initial quadratic phase error coefficient are identified based upon the slow-time samples. The corrected samples are processed according to a superresolution signal processing technique to thereby obtain a plurality of estimated Doppler frequencies for a plurality of point scatterers at each range line, after which a true signal for each range line is reconstructed based upon the plurality of estimated Doppler frequencies. A correction to the initial quadratic phase error coefficient is then obtained based upon the corrected samples, the true signals and the initial quadratic phase error coefficient.