Radar automatic target recognition (RATR) technology is fundamental but complicated system engineering that combines sensor, target, environment, and signal processing technology, etc. It plays a significant role in improving the level and capabilities of military and civilian automation. Although RATR has been successfully applied in some aspects, the complete theoretical system has not been established. At present, deep learning algorithms have received a lot of attention and have emerged as potential and feasible solutions in RATR. This paper mainly reviews related articles published between 2010 and 2022, which corresponds to the period when deep learning methods were introduced into RATR research. In this paper, the current research status of radar target characteristics is summarized, including motion, micro-motion, one-dimensional, and two-dimensional characteristics, etc. This paper reviews the progress of deep learning methods in the feature extraction and recognition of radar target characteristics in recent years, including space, air, ground, sea-surface targets, etc. Due to more and more attention and research results published in the past few years, it is hoped that this review can provide potential guidance for future research and application of deep learning in fields related to RATR.

Compared with the commonly used lidar and visual sensors, the millimeter-wave radar has all-day and all-weather performance advantages and more stable performance in the face of different scenarios. However, using the millimeter-wave radar as the Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) sensor is also associated with other problems, such as small data volume, more outliers, and low precision, which reduce the accuracy of SLAM localization and mapping. This paper proposes a millimeter-wave radar SLAM assisted by the Radar Cross Section (RCS) feature of the target and Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU). Using IMU to combine continuous radar scanning point clouds into “Multi-scan,” the problem of small data volume is solved. The Density-based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN) clustering algorithm is used to filter outliers from radar data. In the clustering, the RCS feature of the target is considered, and the Mahalanobis distance is used to measure the similarity of the radar data. At the same time, in order to alleviate the problem of the lower accuracy of SLAM positioning due to the low precision of millimeter-wave radar data, an improved Correlative Scan Matching (CSM) method is proposed in this paper, which matches the radar point cloud with the local submap of the global grid map. It is a “Scan to Map” point cloud matching method, which achieves the tight coupling of localization and mapping. In this paper, three groups of actual data are collected to verify the proposed method in part and in general. Based on the comparison of the experimental results, it is proved that the proposed millimeter-wave radar SLAM assisted by the RCS feature of the target and IMU has better accuracy and robustness in the face of different scenarios.

Digital elevation model (DEM) generation using multi-aspect synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery applying radargrammetry has become a hotspot. The traditional radargrammetric method is to solve the rigorous radar projection equations to obtain the three dimensional coordinates of targets. In this paper, we propose a new DEM generation method based on the offset between multi-aspect images formed on ground plane. The ground object will be projected to different positions from different viewing aspect angles if the height of object is not equal to the height of imaging plane. The linear relationship between the offset of imaging positions and height of the object is derived and scale factor is obtained finally. Height information can be retrieved from offset of imaging positions directly through the DEM extraction model presented in this paper. Thus the solution to nonlinear equations point by point can be avoided. Real C band airborne circular SAR images is used to verify the proposed approach. When extracted DEM applied in multi-aspect imaging process, superimposition of multi-aspect images will no longer be defocusing and can achieve finer observation of the scanned scene.

In this paper, a new moving target detection algorithm for single channel circular Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is presented. Circular SAR can perform observation with circular trajectory and retrieve multiaspect information. Due to the circular trajectory, the moving target has long and complex apparent trace (smear trajectory), while the background (clutter) has relatively slow changing characteristic in limited azimuth integration. Thus, the background image can be filtered by using radiometric adjusted overlap subaperture images. Then, the Signal-to-Clutter Ratio (SCR) of the region where the strong backscattering clutter exists is enhanced with logarithm background subtraction technique. In the real data experiment, the maximum SCR improvement is 13 dB. Finally, the moving target can be detected using a Constant False Alarm (CFAR) detector. The algorithm is evaluated with one channel data of three channel GOTCHA-GMTI dataset.

The scatterings of many targets are aspect dependent, which is called anisotropy. Multi-angular synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a suitable means of detecting this kind of anisotropic scattering behavior by viewing targets from different aspect angles. First, the statistical properties of anisotropic and isotropic scatterings are studied in this paper. X-band chamber circular SAR data are used. The result shows that isotropic scatterings have stable distributions in different aspect viewing angles while the distributions of anisotropic scatterings are various. Then the statistical properties of single polarization high-resolution multi-angular SAR images are modeled by different distributions. G ${}^0$ distribution performs best in all types of areas. An anisotropic scattering analysis method based on the multi-angular statistical properties is proposed. A likelihood ratio test based on G ${}^0$ distribution is used to measure the anisotropy. Anisotropic scatterings can be discriminated from isotropic scatterings by thresholding. Besides, the scattering direction can also be estimated by our method. AHH polarization C-band circular SAR data are used to validate our method. The result of using G ${}^0$ distribution is compared with the result of using Rayleigh distribution. The result of using G ${}^0$ distribution is the better one.

Coal mines play an important role in the global energy supply. Monitoring the displacement of open-pit mines is crucial to preventing geological disasters, such as landslides and surface displacement, caused by high-intensity mining activities. In recent years, multi-temporal Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (InSAR) technology has advanced and become widely used for monitoring the displacement of open-pit mines. However, the scattering characteristics of surfaces in open-pit mining areas are unstable, resulting in few coherence points with uneven distribution. Small BAseline Subset InSAR (SABS-InSAR) technology struggles to extract high-density points and fails to capture the overall displacement trend of the monitoring area. To address these challenges, this study focused on the Shengli West No. 2 open-pit coal mine in eastern Inner Mongolia, China, using 201 Sentinel-1 images collected from 20 May 2017 to 13 April 2024. We applied both SBAS-InSAR and distributed scatterer InSAR (DS-InSAR) methods to investigate the surface displacement and long-term behavior of the open-pit coal mine over the past seven years. The relationship between this displacement and mining activities was analyzed. The results indicate significant land subsidence was observed in reclaimed areas, with rates exceeding 281.2 mm/y. The compaction process of waste materials was the main contributor to land subsidence. Land uplift or horizontal displacement was observed over the areas near the active working parts of the mines. Compared to SBAS-InSAR, DS-InSAR was shown to more effectively capture the spatiotemporal distribution of surface displacement in open-pit coal mines, offering more intuitive, comprehensive, and high-precision monitoring of open-pit coal mines.