Focusing azimuth-invariant bistatic synthetic aperture radar data based on a polynomial model

In this paper, a focusing approach is presented to widen the use of efficient monostatic imaging algorithms for azimuth-invariant bistatic synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data. The bistatic range history is modeled by a polynomial of azimuth time. Using this model, an analytic form of the signal spectrum in the 2D frequency domain is derived, and a simple single-valued relation between the transmitter and receive ranges is established. In this way, a lot of monostatic image formation algorithms can be extended for the bistatic SAR data, and a bistatic chirp scaling algorithm is developed as an application of the new approach. This algorithm can be used to process the azimuth-invariant bistatic configuration where the transmitter and receiver platforms are moving on parallel tracks with the same velocity. In addition, some simulation results are given to demonstrate the validity of the proposed approach.