Moving Target Indication via Three-Antenna SAR with Simplified Fractional Fourier Transform

Ground moving target indiction (GMTI) is of great important for surveillance and reconnaissance, but it is not an easy job. One technique is the along-track interferometry (ATI) synthetic aperture radar (SAR), which was initially proposed for estimating the radial velocity of ground moving targets. However, the measured differential phase may be contaminated by overlapping stationary clutter, leading to errors in velocity and position estimates. As effective clutter suppression can be achieved by multiple aperture or phase center antennas, this article presents a simplified fractional Fourier transform (SFrFT) for three-antenna-based SAR GMTI applications. This approach cancels clutter with three-antenna-based methods and forms two-channel signals through which moving targets are detected and imaged. Next, the Doppler parameters of the moving targets are estimated with the SFrFT-based estimation algorithm. In this way, both target location and target velocity are acquired. Next, the moving targets are focused with one uniform imaging algorithm. The feasibility is validated by theory analysis and simulation results.