Ship detection with spaceborne multi-channel SAR/GMTI radars

摘要

This paper presents a new approach for detecting ships from a spaceborne multi-channel SAR/GMTI radar. The ship detection is based on a combination of conventional SAR processing and multi-channel SAR/GMTI processing. While large vessels with high RCS (Radar Cross Section) can be successfully detected with a single-channel SAR, small moving ships with low RCS are hidden by the sea clutter returns and can not be directly detected. Multi-channel adaptive processing like ISTAP (Imaging Space-Time Adaptive Processing) [1] or EDPCA (Extended Displaced Phase Center Antenna) [2] enables efficient cancellation of the interfering sea clutter and detection of the moving vessels.