A New Method of Aircraft Motion Error Extraction From Radar Raw Data For Real Time Motion Compensation

Presented is a new solution for real-time motion compensation. The main idea is to extract all the necessary motions of the aircraft from the radar backscatter signal using a new radar configuration and new methods for evaluating the azimuth spectra of the radar signal. Hence an inertial navigation system becomes unnecessary for many applications. The motion compensation parameters for realtime motion error correction are the range delay, the range dependent phaseshift, and the pulse repetition frequency. The motions of the aircraft to be extracted are the displacement in line-of-sight (LOS) direction, the aircraft’s yaw and drift angle, and the forward velocity. Results show that a three-look image with an azimuth resolution of 3 m in L-band using a small aircraft is achievable, and the implementation of this method in real time using an array processor is feasible.