Augmented Lagrangian method for angular super-resolution imaging in forward-looking scanning radar

Angular super-resolution imaging in the forward-looking area of a scanning radar platform plays an important role in the application of scanning radar. However, the angular resolution of scanning radar is limited by the system parameters. Thus, improving the angular resolution of scanning radar beyond the limitation of the given system parameters is desired. We present an angular super-resolution imaging method by solving the associated deconvolution problem. We first formulate an angular super-resolution problem in scanning radar as a deconvolution task and then convert it to a constrained optimization problem by incorporating the prior information of the target in the scene. We then solve the constrained optimization problem in convex optimization framework using an augmented Lagrangian method. In order to solve the constrained optimization problem, a corresponding augmented Lagrangian function is constructed and its saddle point is found using alternating direction method. The advantages of the proposed method for angular super-resolution imaging in scanning radar are that the proposed method can not only realize the angular super-resolution imaging in scanning radar but also has high precision. Simulation and experiment results are given at the end to verify the validity of the proposed method compared with a Wiener filter that is applicable for angular super-resolution in scanning radar. © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI. [DOI: 10.1117/1.JRS.9.096055]