Implications of SAR ambiguities in estimating the motion of slow targets

Abstract

This paper examines the implications pertaining to the problem of attempting to invert synthetic aperture radar (SAR) measurement data to yield unique estimates of the underlying motion of slow targets in the imaged scene. A recent analysis has demonstrated that ambiguities exist in estimating the kinematics parameters of surface targets for general bistatic SAR collection data. In particular, a procedure has been developed which generates alternate target trajectories which give the same SAR measurements as that of the true target motion. The current paper extends the earlier analysis by generating specific numeric examples of alternate target trajectories corresponding to the motion of a given slowly moving target. This slow-target case reveals the counter-intuitive result that a single SAR collection data set can be generated by target trajectories with significantly different, and possibly opposing, heading directions. For example, the true motion of a given target can be moving towards the mean radar position during the SAR collection interval, whereas a valid alternate trajectory can correspond to a target that is moving away from the radar. The present analysis demonstrates the extent of the challenges associated with attempting to estimate of the underlying motion of targets using SAR measurement data.