Patent · US Expired

Method of minimizing leakage energy in a synthetic aperture radar process

US6111535A · kind A · utility

9Cited by
4References
21Claims
0Family size

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Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateAug 24, 1998
Grant dateAug 29, 2000
Priority date
Expiry dateAug 24, 2018

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG01S15/8977
  • WIPO fieldMeasurement
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

A method of minimizing leakage energy in a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system is based a Lagrangian function constructed from image-domain magnitude, and a "penalty function" based upon the choice of aperture. Broadly, the choice of penalty function is related to an estimate of undesirable energy lying outside of the main lobe of the impulse response introduced by the given aperture. Since there are no non-analytic constraints, the output image is purely an analytic function of the input, resulting in a more straightforward analysis and implementation while lessening the likelihood of pseudo-random phenomena. A tunable relative coefficient betveen the sidelobe energy estimate and the output magnitude allows control over a physically well-understood tradeoff between clutter contrast and point resolution. The generality of the technique may be extended to a multi-parameter minimization with possible applications in super-resolution, gap-filling, interferometry, and ultrasonic imaging, and ATR.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.