Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging is usually performed along a straight path. In practice, variations from the ideal caused by maneuvers with acceleration are inevitable. The main problem is the complex signal processing, particularly in the highly squinted spotlight mode. In this paper, acceleration model is analyzed in more details. Impacts are obtained how the acceleration influences the Doppler parameters and space-variant terms, including the SAR resolution and azimuth bandwidth. According to the special signal properties of the acceleration case, an approximation of the range history is made to avoid using the method of series reversion (MSR) to obtain an accurate spectrum. Based on the high-accurate spectrum, a spotlight algorithm with a modified two-step approach is given. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the modified algorithm.Index Terms-Acceleration model, highly squinted, maneuvers, omega-K algorithm (OKA), spotlight synthetic aperture radar (SAR), two-step approach.

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Near space is the key to integrating “sky” and “space” into the future. A synthetic aperture radar (SAR) that works in this area would initiate a technological revolution for remote sensing applications. This study mainly focused on ground moving target imaging (GMTIm) for a near-space hypersonic vehicle-borne SAR (NS-HSV-SAR) with squint angle. The range history, parameter coupling, and Doppler ambiguity of the squint-looking NS-HSV-SAR are more complicated than traditional side-looking airborne or space-borne SARs. Thus, a precise range model is presented on the basis of phase error analyses. Then, all potential distributions of echo’s azimuth spectrum are derived, and a GMTIm method is proposed on the basis of a detailed analysis of the echo characteristics. The proposed method consists of three steps. Firstly, a prior information-based pre-processing function was created to decrease the Doppler ambiguity and range migration effects. Secondly, a blur matched keystone transform was developed to correct the residual range walk migration. Thirdly, a time-saving chirp Fourier transform was investigated for azimuth focusing. Implementation considerations, including the curvilinear trajectory of the NS-HSV-SAR, multiple moving target imaging, and applicability and limitation of the method, are discussed. Finally, simulation results are presented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

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Maneuvers provide flexibility for high-resolution highly-squinted (HRHS) airborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging and also mean complex signal properties in the echoes. In this paper, considering the curved path described by the fifth-order motion parameter model, effects of the third-and higher-order motion parameters on imaging are analyzed. The results indicate that the spatial variations distributed in range, azimuth, and height directions, have great impacts on imaging qualities, and they should be eliminated when designing the focusing approach. In order to deal with this problem, the spatial variations are decomposed into three main parts: range, azimuth, and cross-coupling terms. The cross-coupling variations are corrected by polynomial phase filter, whereas the range and azimuth terms are removed via Stolt mapping. Different from the traditional focusing methods, the cross-coupling variations can be removed greatly by the proposed approach. Implementation considerations are also included. Simulation results prove the effectiveness of the proposed approach.