Abstract

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems are versatile, high-resolution radar imagers useful for providing detailed intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, especially when atmospheric conditions are non-ideal for optical imagers. However, moving targets in SAR images are smeared. Along-track interferometry is a commonly-used method for extracting the motion parameters of moving targets but requires a dual-aperture SAR system, which may be power- size- or cost-prohibitive. This thesis presents a method of estimating target motion parameters in single-channel SAR data given geometric target motion constraints. I test this method on both simulated and actual SAR data. This estimation method includes an initial estimate, computation of the SAR ambiguity function, and application of the target motion constraints to form a focused image of the moving target. The constraints are imposed by assuming that target motion is restricted to a road. Finally, I measure its performance by investigating the error introduced in the motion estimates using both simulated and actual data.

Degree

College and Department

Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology; Electrical and Computer Engineering

Rights

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