Toward a Fundamental Understanding of Multiresolution SAR Signatures

A physical optics formalism is used to establish a first-principles analysis for discriminating specular returns from diffuse returns in a 1-D synthetic aperture radar. The optimum Neyman-Pearson detection processor is shown to substantially outperform the conventional, full-resolution SAR imager for extended specular targets embedded in diffuse clutter plus receiver noise. Significant performance advantages, relative to conventional full-resolution SAR processing, are also shown to accrue for optimum Neyman-Pearson reception of an extended diffuse target embedded solely in receiver noise.