The high-squint airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) has the ability to detect the target area flexibly, and the detection swath is significantly increased compared with the side-looking SAR system. Therefore, it is of great significance to carry out research on high-precision imaging methods for high-squint airborne SAR. However, the high-squint SAR echoes have large Range Cell Migration (RCM), resulting in severe range–azimuth coupling and strong spatial variation. In this paper, a Modified Range Doppler Algorithm (MRDA) is proposed to cope with these effects introduced by the significant RCM in high-squint airborne SAR imaging. The bulk compensation preprocessing is first adopted to remove the considerable RCM and severe cross-coupling in a two-dimensional frequency domain. Then, Non-Linear Chirp Scaling (NLCS) in the range direction is utilized to equalize the range-variant chirp rate caused by the residual RCM and coupling and, therefore, the consistent range phase compensation can be fulfilled in range frequency domain. The modified correlation processing is executed to compensate the residual Doppler phase modulation, the residual RCM and the range-variant cubic phase modulation, which guarantees the characteristics of high efficiency and high precision. The simulations have demonstrated that the MRDA can focus the SAR echoes with large squint angles more effectively than the algorithms based on the Linear Range Walk Correction (LRWC) method.

Squint spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) can significantly improve the ground observation performance of platform sensor through flexible beam pointing; however, it is still challenging for squint spaceborne sliding spotlight SAR data focusing since the significant Range Cell Migration (RCM) and Range Azimuth Coupling (RAC) caused by the squint angles. Whereas the Linear Range Walk Correction (LRWC) can deal with these problems, the traditional Chirp Scaling (CS) algorithm cannot adapt to the signal model after the LRWC operation, especially in the case of sliding spotlight mode. In this letter, a Hybrid CS Algorithm (HCSA), integrating the Modified CS (MCS) in range time domain with the Frequency CS (FCS) and Frequency Non-Linear CS (FNLCS) in azimuth frequency domain, is proposed for squint sliding spotlight SAR system. After LRWC and deramp operations, the Hybrid CS (HCS) based on the updated signal model is employed to fulfill whole scene focusing, which can equalize the Doppler Frequency Modulation Rate (DFMR) and handle the back-folding issue in azimuth time domain simultaneously. The geometric correction is then be applied to obtain the focused SAR image without LRWC geometry distortion. Simulation demonstrates that for the spaceborne SAR with 1.0m resolution in both range and azimuth directions, and a squint angle of 30°, the proposed HCSA can realize effective focusing within the full scene.

The capability to work on the high-squint mode brings greatly advantages to the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) system. However, the efficient imaging of the high-squint SAR data has not been well settled. Due to the severe Range-Azimuth Coupling (RAC), the conventional imaging algorithms fail to work properly in the high-squint cases. In this paper, a Decoupled Chirp Scaling Algorithm (DCSA) is proposed for the high-squint SAR data imaging, whose key step is a Range-Azimuth Decoupling (RAD) preprocessing in the 2-D frequency domain. After RAD, the majority of the RAC is eliminated, where the high-squint SAR data is simplified into the quasi-broadside mode. The data can be then processed via the chirp-scaling-typed scheme, which is summarized as follows: The data after RAD is firstly transformed into the Range Doppler (RD) domain, in which a Non-Linear Chirp Scaling (NLCS) is performed in the range direction to eliminate the chirp rate variations caused by the residual RAC. The chirp scaling processing is simultaneously performed to equalize the Range Cell Migrations (RCM) for the full scene data. The range compression, bulk RCM correction, as well as a compensation for the cubic and quartic phases introduced by the NLCS are then accomplished in the 2-D frequency domain. Finally, the azimuth compensation is accomplished in the RD domain to obtain the final focused SAR image. Different from the Linear Range Walk Correction (LRWC) accomplished in the azimuth time domain, the RAD method proposed here does not destroy the azimuth-invariant property of the SAR echoes. Therefore, the DCSA can adapt to the wide swath SAR data imaging. Simulation shows that for the airborne SAR with 1m resolution in both range and azimuth directions, and a squint angle of 45°, the DCSA can achieve the bulk focusing of the full-scene data with a range swath of 10km, whereas the azimuth swath is not limited. Compared with the classical CSA, the DCSA requires only one more range FFT/IFFT and one more complex matrix multiplication, which is therefore timely very efficient.

High-Resolution Wide-Swath (HRWS) is an important development direction of space-borne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). The two-dimensional spatial variation of the Doppler parameters is the most significant characteristic of the sliding spotlight space-borne SAR system under the requirements of HRWS. Therefore, the compensation of the two-dimensional spatial variation is the most challenging problem faced in the imaging of HRWS situations. The compensatory approach is then proposed to address this problem in this paper. The spatial distribution of the Doppler parameters for the HRWS space-borne SAR data in the sliding spotlight working mode is firstly analyzed, based on which a Spatial-Variant Equivalent Slant Range Model (SV-ESRM) is put forward to accurately formulate the range history for the distributed target. By introducing an azimuth-varying term, the SV-ESRM can precisely describe the range history for not only central targets but also marginal targets, which is more adaptive to the HRWS space-borne SAR requirements. Based on the SV-ESRM, a Modified Hybrid Correlation Algorithm (MHCA) for HRWS space-borne SAR imaging is derived to focus the full-scene data on one single imaging processing. A Doppler phase perturbation incorporated with the sub-aperture method is firstly performed to eliminate the azimuth variation of the Doppler parameters and remove the Doppler spectrum aliasing. Then, an advanced hybrid correlation is employed to achieve the precise differential Range Cell Migration (RCM) correction and Doppler phase compensation. A range phase perturbation method is also utilized to eliminate the range profile defocusing caused by range-azimuth coupling for marginal targets. Finally, a de-rotation processing is performed to remove the azimuth aliasing and the residual azimuth-variance and obtain the precisely focused SAR image. Simulation shows that the SAR echoes for a 20 km × 20 km scene with a 0.25 m resolution in both the range and azimuth directions could be focused precisely via one single imaging processing, which validates the feasibility of the proposed algorithm.

As an emerging orbital system with flexibility and brand application prospects, the highly elliptical orbit synthetic aperture radar (HEO SAR) can achieve both a low orbit detailed survey and continuous earth surface observation in high orbit, which could be applied to marine reconnaissance and surveillance. However, due to its large eccentricity, two challenges have been faced in the signal processing of HEO SAR at present. The first challenge is that the traditional equivalent squint range model (ESRM) fails to accurately describe the entire range for the whole orbit period including the perigee, the apogee, and the squint subduction section. The second one is to exploit an efficient HEO SAR imaging algorithm in the squinted case which solves the problem that traditional imaging algorithm fails to achieve the focused imaging processing of HEO SAR during the entire orbit period. In this paper, a novel imaging algorithm for HEO SAR is presented. Firstly, the signal model based on the geometric configuration of the large elliptical orbit is established and the Doppler parameter characteristics of SAR are analyzed. Secondly, due to the particularity of Doppler parameters variation in the whole period of HEO, the equivalent velocity and equivalent squint angle used in MESRM can no longer be applied, a refined fourth-order equivalent squint range model(R4-ESRM) that is suitable for HEO SAR is developed by introducing fourth-order Doppler parameter into Modified ESRM (MESRM), which accurately reconstructs the range history of HEO SAR. Finally, a novel imaging algorithm combining azimuth resampling and time-frequency domain hybrid correlation based on R4-ESRM is derived. Simulation is performed to demonstrate the feasibility and validity of the presented algorithm and range model, showing that it achieves the precise phase compensation and well focusing.

High-resolution and high-squint spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system has excellent earth observation performance. However, high-squint spaceborne SAR data is more challenging to process than the general broadside counterpart because of the severe range-azimuth coupling (RAC). Whereas the classic linear range walk correction (LRWC) method can handle this problem, it is performed in azimuth time-domain and seriously constrains azimuth swath width. In this article, a decoupled hybrid correlation Algorithm (DHCA), combining the range-azimuth decoupling (RAD) in 2-D frequency domain with the modified hybrid correlation (MHC), is proposed to handle sliding spotlight spaceborne SAR data of high-squint angle case. The decoupled hybrid correlation (DHC) is the main body of the proposed algorithm, and it starts with RAD filtering in 2-D frequency domain, which is designed to eliminate the majority of the range cell migration (RCM) and RAC caused by high-squint angles. A nonlinear chirp scaling (NLCS) in range direction is subsequently performed to equalize the variant range chirp rate caused by residual RCM and RAC. Coarse range compression can then be realized uniformly by the range-matched filtering. The NLCS operation and range coarse compression ensure that the range-Doppler (RD) signals of all targets within the whole scene occupy very narrow range cell scopes. By making full use of the principle of stationary point (POSP) to signals, the range compression position and range frequency mapping relationship after NLCS can be derived. The MHC can therefore be fulfilled by extracting the RD signals along the residual RCM and constructing the reference correlation function after the range NLCS. Thus, both the efficiency and the accuracy of focusing processing are guaranteed. Simulations are carried out to validate the proposed algorithm.