High Resolution Millimeter-Wave Radar for Sea Target Indentification

Abstract

Nowadays, high resolution radars are reaching a great interest in the research community. By transmitting a large bandwidth signal, they achieve a fine range resolution. A fine cross range resolution depends on a large variation of the aspect angle during the coherent processing interval. In this paper, a high resolution millimeter-wave radar is described and its capabilities for sea target identification are explored. The radar transmits a large bandwidth chirp, i.e. it is a linear frequency modulated continuous wave radar. The ISAR (Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar) technique is used for the generation of images of non-cooperative targets. These images, if correctly focused, may usually outperform the traditional optical images in adverse atmospheric conditions. Improved focusing algorithms for the quality enhancement of these images are also described. Real data from the sensor prove the viability of the technique for sea target identification