Sidelobe Suppression Algorithm for SAR Imaging

Based on Iterative Adaptive Approach

Jiakun Wang, Pengbo Wang

School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, China
565157357@qq.com

AbstractOf the presented SAR imaging approaches, the is compared with that of aforementioned windowing
range Doppler algorithm (RDA), the chirp scaling algorithm approaches. Finally, Section V provides the conclusions.
(CSA), the wavenumber domain algorithm ( kA), and their
variations can build an intensity image from the SAR echo, II. THE SIGNAL MODEL
although these algorithms based on matched filter suffer high
Consider a SAR system with an M-length linear FM
sidelobe level and low quality of imaging result. Recently the
iterative adaptive approach (IAA) algorithm has been
transmitted pulse
s = s (1) s ( 2 ) " s ( m ) " s ( M )
T
investigated for high-resolution spectral estimation with low (1)
sidelobe levels. Regrettably, because its a post-processing
technique, those weak targets which have been submerged cannot where
be recovered. We propose a SAR imaging algorithm based on ( m M 2) fs
IAA algorithm to solve this problem. s ( m ) = rect
T
Index TermsSynthetic aperture radar imaging, iterative 2 (2)
mM 2 m M 2
adaptive approach, low sidelobe level. exp j 2 f 0 + Kr
fs fs

I. INTRODUCTION
T is the pulse duration, f 0 is the carrier frequency, f s is the
Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a well-established sampling frequency, K r is the chirp-rate, m = 1,", M and
remote sensing technique, capable of acquiring images of
Earths surface independent of weather conditions and rect ( < ) is the rectangle function
sunlight illumination [1]. SAR works by transmitting radio
1 , x 0.5
signals and receiving targets echo signals regularly through rect ( x ) = (3)
the antenna. And then a certain method, such as the range 0 , else
Doppler algorithm (RDA), the chirp scaling algorithm (CSA), Suppose there is a scene with I J (range azimuth) pixels,
the wavenumber domain algorithm (kA) [2-5], is used to and the echo of ( i, j ) pixel at azimuth time y (see Fig.1) can
transform the two-dimensional echo data into targets
be expressed as follows, si , j ; y ( m ) is the m th element of si , j ; y
backscattering coefficient, forming a visible image. In
2
traditional SAR system, focusing is achieved through the L 2 Ri , j ; y f s
matched filter, and higher sidelobe energy will appear in the si , j ; y ( m ) = i , j sin c a i , j ; y s m (4)
SAR imaging. As a result, the weak targets will be submerged c
by the sidelobe of strong targets. To solve this problem, where i , j is the backscatter coefficient of the pixel target,
windowing processing in frequency domain is commonly used i, j ; y is the angle between the radar-target line and radar sight,
for sidelobe suppression at the sacrifice of degradation and
widening of the mainlobe level [6]. Ri , j ; y is the distance between the pixel target and radar, La is
In this paper, a sidelobe suppression algorithm for SAR the azimuth length of radar, c is the speed of light, = c f 0
imaging based on iterative adaptive approach (IAA) was is the wavelength and
proposed, where the signal model is given by matrix equation,
1 ,x = 0
and then the sidelobe suppression is realized through the IAA
algorithm. Extensive simulations are performed to show the sin c ( x ) = sin ( x ) (5)
, else
significantly improved imaging result. x
In the next section, we present a transition matrix to
describe the SAR echo model. Then, in Section III, we discuss
the process of the side suppression algorithm. In Section IV,
the proposed algorithms performance for sidelobe suppression

978-1-4673-7297-8/15/$31.00 2015
c IEEE 443
 y III. THE SIDELOBE SUPPRESSION ALGORITHM
Affected by the interplay between the scene pixels, it is
difficult to find a closed-form solution for the backscatter
Ri , j ; y coefficient i , j . To solve this problem, in this section, we
i , j ; y
propose an estimation algorithm based on iterative adaptive
approach (IAA) to calculate targets backscatter coefficient
with low sidelobe levels.
Suppose there are P Q (range azimuth) pixels echo
have intersection with the ( i, j ) pixels and the ( p, q ) pixel is
Fig.1 Sketch map of the scene one of them (see fig.2). Define Ap , q;i , j is parts of the ( p, q )
x p ,q y p , q
Generally, i, j ; y and Ri , j ; y can be calculated by using some pixels transition matrix Ap , q ^ , namely the parts (the
SAR parameters which are also needed in RD, Chirp Scaling shadow in Fig.2) in the scope of the ( i, j ) pixels echo.
and so on [2-5]. x yi , j
As shown in Fig.2, suppose there are X range sampling Ap , q ;i , j ^ i , j has the same size with Ai , j and its elements
points, Y pulses transmitted in all and the scope (the red Ap , q ;i , j ( x, y ) is calculated as follows
rectangle in Fig.2) of the ( i, j ) pixels echo starts from the
Ap , q ( x, y ) ,1 x x p , q ,1 y y p , q
xi, j range gate, yi, j azimuth time and ends in xi, j range gate, Ap , q ;i , j ( x, y ) = (8)
0 , else
yi, j azimuth time. Then the whole echo of the ( i, j ) pixel in a where x = x + xi, j x p , q , y = y + yi, j y p , q , x = 1," , xi , j
synthetic aperture can be written as
and y = 1," , yi , j .Then do column-wise vectorization on
Echoi , j = Ai , j i , j (6)
xi , j yi , j
Ap , q ; i , j
where Ai , j ^ is the transition matrix, xi , j = xi, j xi, j ,
Ap , q;i , j = vec ( Ap , q ;i , j )
yi , j = yi, j yi, j . Ai , j ( x, y ) is the x th row and y th column
(9)
= Ap , q ;i , j (1,1) " Ap , q ;i , j ( xi , j , yi , j )
T
element of Ai , j . Then Ai , j ( x, y ) can be written as xi , j yi , j 1

Ai , j ( x, y ) = si , j ; y ( x ) (7) Similarly, organize the ( i, j ) pixels echo matrix Echoi , j

where y = x + yi, j , x = y + xi, j , x = 1," , xi , j and and its transition matrix Ai , j in a column-wise form
y = 1," , yi , j . Echoi , j = vec ( Echoi , j )
Range Direction
(10)
= Echoi , j (1,1) " Echoi , j ( xi , j , yi , j )
T
xp ,q xi , j xp ,q xi , j X
1 xi , j yi , j 1

Ai , j = vec ( Ai , j )
yp ,q
(11)
= Ai , j (1,1) " Ai , j ( xi , j , yi , j )
T

xi , j yi , j 1
( p, q )
Then the IAA is applied to iterate following functions
yi , j
P Q
2
Ri , j = p , q Ap , q;i , j Ap , q ;i , j
H
yp ,q
p =1 q =1
( i, j ) yi , j
(12)

AiH, j Ri, 1j Echoi , j
i , j =
yi , j
xi , j AiH, j Ri, 1j Ai , j
until convergence, where Ri , j is initialized to the identity
matrix I [7-8].
Y
Then the proposed algorithm can be summarized as follows,
Fig.2 Sketch map of the ( i, j ) pixels echo as shown in Fig.3:
(1) The first step is to get the SAR echo data and some
In this section, as previously shown, the relationship imaging parameters.
between SAR echo data and targets backscatter coefficient (2) The second step is to calculate every point's transition
have been established by building the transition matrix Ai , j . matrix according to the SAR signal model and the spatial
Its the key to apply the IAA algorithm for sidelobe relationship of SAR and targets.
suppression. (3) The third step is to calculate every points covariance

444 2015 IEEE 5th Asia-Pacific Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar(APSAR)

matrix Ri , j and then apply the iterative processing to get all the 1 1
-5 -5

Azimuth Direction

Azimuth Direction
points' backscatter coefficient, as shown in equation (12), until
convergence.
(4) Finally, a sidelobe suppressed image is generated. 0 0.5 0 0.5

5 5
0 0
-5 0 5 -5 0 5
Range Direction Range Direction

(a) (b)

1
-5

Azimuth Direction
0 0.5

5
0
-5 0 5
Range Direction

(c)
Figure 4: Focused results of point targets. (a) CSA (b) CSA with
windowing processing (c) The proposed algorithm

B. Simulation of Distributed Target

Fig.3 Flowchart of the proposed algorithm
In this method, the interplay between the scene pixels is
taken into account to estimate the scenes backscatter
coefficient. The covariance matrix Ri , j is employed to describe
the influence on the ( i, j ) pixel exerted by its surrounding
pixels. Especially, the ( i, j ) pixel influence on itself also
should be included in Ri , j .
IV. EXPERIMENTS
Here, simulations of point targets and distributed target are
performed to demonstrate the performance of the proposed
algorithm. In addition, CSA and windowing processing is
For this example, we design an distributed target with a
SAR image of a tank as the whole scenes backscatter
coefficient. Fig.5 (a) shows the focused result provided by the
CSA. It can be seen that the imaging result was suffered from
high sidelobe level. Fig.5 (b) shows the focused result obtained
by the CSA with windowing processing, where significant
mainlobe broadening also can be observed for the target. Fig.5
(c) shows the focused results obtained by the proposed
algorithm. Compared to windowing processing, the imaging
result of the proposed algorithm is much clearer and the
focusing performance has been improved significantly for
distributed target as well.
-40 1
0.8
Azimuth Direction

-20
employed for comparison.
0.6
A. Simulation of Point Targets 0
0.4
we design a cross lattice scene with 5 points, which include
one strong point in the center and four weak points around. 20
0.2
Fig.4 (a) shows the focused result provided by the CSA, where
the weak targets was submerged by the sidelobe of strong 40 0
-50 0 50
targets. Fig.4 (b) shows the focused result obtained by the CSA Range Direction
with windowing processing, where significant mainlobe
broadening can be observed for all targets. Fig.4 (c) shows the (a)
focused results obtained by the proposed algorithm. Compared
to windowing processing, the focusing performance has been
improved significantly.

2015 IEEE 5th Asia-Pacific Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar(APSAR) 445

 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
-40 1
This work is supported by the Fundamental Research Funds
0.8 for Central Universities under Grant No.YWF-15-GJSYS-054.

Azimuth Direction
-20

0.6 REFERENCES
0
0.4
[1] J. C. Curlander, and R. N. McDonough, Synthetic aperture
20 radar: Systems and signal processing, New York, NY,
0.2
USA:Wiley,1991
40 0 [2] A. M. Smith, A new approach to range doppler SAR
-50 0 50
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1009-1057,1985.
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(c)
Figure 5: Focused results of distributed targets. (a) CSA (b) CSA with
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V. CONCLUSION
A sidelobe suppression algorithm based on iterative
adaptive approach has been proposed in this paper. The matrix
description of echo signal and the interplay between the scene
points were developed, and the corresponding IAA-based
sidelobe suppression algorithm was derived, where the
sidelobe suppression is realized through IAA. As a result, the
focused results with ultra-low sidelobe can be obtained. In the
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446 2015 IEEE 5th Asia-Pacific Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar(APSAR)