Joint Frequency and PRF Agility Waveform Optimization for High-Resolution ISAR Imaging

Traditional radar waveforms are easily intercepted and interfered with by enemy's reconnaissance system with the time-frequency periodic pattern recognition. Frequency and pulse repetition frequency (PRF) agility is an effective approach to decrease interception probability and increase anti-jamming capabilities. On the other hand, the agility brings about high sidelobes and the difficulty of parameter estimation using the range-Doppler signal processing. In this article, an optimization and high-resolution imaging algorithm for sparse stepped linear frequency modulation waveform (SSLFMW) with frequency and PRF agility is developed. The range and Doppler 2-D autocorrelation function of the agile waveform is investigated to pave a way to find an optimization strategy for frequency and PRF to suppress range and Doppler sidelobes. Relied on the pulse trains of low Doppler sidelobes, we propose a method of cognitive transmitting and motion retrieval based on the maximum likelihood principle to eliminate the frequency and range coupling in velocity estimation. The 2-D sparse reconstruction with conjugate gradient solver is proposed to efficiently reconstruct the high-resolution range-Doppler image with the frequency and PRF agility waveform. Both simulated and real-measured data sets are used to verify the improved performance of the proposal.