High-resolution synthetic aperture side view radar system used by means of digital beamforming
First Claim
1. A high-resolution synthetic aperture side-looking radar system on a vehicle moving above the earth surface at a constant speed, the vehicle being provided with a coherently operating radar device comprising a transmission antenna directed obliquely downward orthogonal to the direction of movement and formed by spatially separated sub-apertures, and a receiving antenna correspondingly directed obliquely downward orthogonal to the direction of movement and divided into a plurality of spatially separated sub-antennas, the coherently operating radar device emitting radio frequency signals via the spatially separated sub-apertures of the transmission antenna, a respective radio frequency signal of the radio frequency signals being emitted through a respective spatially separated sub-aperture of the spatially separated sub-apertures of the transmission antenna and forming a respective transmission element, the coherently operating radar device receiving echo signals of the emitted radio frequency signals in a plurality of receiving channels via the spatially separated sub-antennas of the receiving antenna, wherein the transmission antenna periodically emits radio frequency pulses at a pulse repetition frequency, wherein the radio frequency signals emitted from the sub-apertures of the transmission antenna are all respectively emitted within a single radio frequency pulse of the radio frequency pulses emitted periodically by the transmission antenna, and, as a transmission signal pulse form, result in a spatiotemporally non-separable multidimensional radio frequency waveform per radio frequency pulse, and wherein, to achieve a spatial filtering, the echo signals received in the receiving channels by the receiving antenna, which is subdivided into a plurality of sub-antennas in at least one of the azimuth and elevation directions, are digitally processed by digital beamforming in the form of additional directional information and the transmission signal pulse form generated on the transmission side is combined with the receiving-side spatial filtering via the digital beamforming adapted to this transmission signal pulse form.
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Abstract
The transmission antenna (10) of the high-resolution synthetic aperture side view radar system comprises a plurality of sub-apertures (7, 8, 9). In each individual transmission pulse, said sub-apertures are controlled in such a manner that a spatiotemporally non-separable multi-dimensional high-frequency waveform is produced as an transmission signal pulse form, such that the modulation of each transmission pulse has a spatiotemporal diversity which is not described by the product having functions which are independent from each other and which are dependent on, respectively, only one spatial dimension. The thus produced transmission pulse form is combined to a capture-sided spatial filtering by means of digital beamforming adapted to said transmission signal pulse form.
25 Citations
20 Claims
- 1. A high-resolution synthetic aperture side-looking radar system on a vehicle moving above the earth surface at a constant speed, the vehicle being provided with a coherently operating radar device comprising a transmission antenna directed obliquely downward orthogonal to the direction of movement and formed by spatially separated sub-apertures, and a receiving antenna correspondingly directed obliquely downward orthogonal to the direction of movement and divided into a plurality of spatially separated sub-antennas, the coherently operating radar device emitting radio frequency signals via the spatially separated sub-apertures of the transmission antenna, a respective radio frequency signal of the radio frequency signals being emitted through a respective spatially separated sub-aperture of the spatially separated sub-apertures of the transmission antenna and forming a respective transmission element, the coherently operating radar device receiving echo signals of the emitted radio frequency signals in a plurality of receiving channels via the spatially separated sub-antennas of the receiving antenna, wherein the transmission antenna periodically emits radio frequency pulses at a pulse repetition frequency, wherein the radio frequency signals emitted from the sub-apertures of the transmission antenna are all respectively emitted within a single radio frequency pulse of the radio frequency pulses emitted periodically by the transmission antenna, and, as a transmission signal pulse form, result in a spatiotemporally non-separable multidimensional radio frequency waveform per radio frequency pulse, and wherein, to achieve a spatial filtering, the echo signals received in the receiving channels by the receiving antenna, which is subdivided into a plurality of sub-antennas in at least one of the azimuth and elevation directions, are digitally processed by digital beamforming in the form of additional directional information and the transmission signal pulse form generated on the transmission side is combined with the receiving-side spatial filtering via the digital beamforming adapted to this transmission signal pulse form.
Specification