Time-frequency analysis is useful for inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging of aircraft with general motion. For applications of ISAR images, quantifiable performance is preferrable. Such performance can be described in terms of effective resolution and dynamic range of an image, quantities that can be obtained from inpulse responses. The problem with this approach is that time-frequency ISAR impulse responses are signal dependent. Based on two representative test signals, four Cohen's class time-frequency methods are compared. The comparison uses estimated resolution and dynamic range from selected azimuth impulse responses. It is found that the adaptive optimal kernel estimator is best of the four tested. This method is less signal dependent than the other methods, and have reasonable dynamic range for radar imaging.

Date Published: 8 March 2002
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 4738, Wavelet and Independent Component Analysis Applications IX, (8 March 2002); doi: 10.1117/12.458740

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4738:
Wavelet and Independent Component Analysis Applications IX
Harold H. Szu; James R. Buss, Editor(s)