Abstract:

For space debris radar imaging with the dimension smaller than the radar range resolution, with the assumption that the translational motion is compensated, and considering movement features of space debris, a novel coherent single range Doppler interferometry (CSRDI) imaging algorithm is proposed, which utilizes the intensity and the phase distribution characteristic of the signal time-frequency spectrum, and implements coherent integration via sinusoid searching. Thus the high resolution 2D space distribution of a space debris is acquired. In addition, a detailed analysis of the relation between the time-frequency spectrum and the resolution as well as the quality of the image is made, and a standard for determining the window function is proposed. Numeric simulation verifies that an image with much finer resolution and higher quality can be achieved through the proposed approach, even under a low signal to noise rate (SNR) condition.

Key words: radar imaging, space debris, coherent single range Doppler interferometry, time-frequency characteristics