PRF-ambiguity resolution for SAR by contrast minimization in range-Doppler domain

Abstract

An algorithm was developed to accurately estimate the Doppler centroid, which is needed for high-quality synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image formation by resolving the SAR pulse repetition frequency (PRF) ambiguity. The algorithm uses the SAR range migration to resolve the PRF-ambiguity by searching for a PRF-ambiguity number that minimizes the intensity contrast in the range-Doppler domain. Experimental results show that the approach, compared with traditional methods for resolving the SAR PRF ambiguity, is more suitable for both high contrast scenes such as urban areas and low contrast scenes such as mountains. Moreover, the approach is more computationally efficient for there are no time-consuming correlations or fast Fourier transform (FFT) operations needed in the range-Doppler domain and only part of the range cells are used in the calculation.