A Real-Time Imaging Processing Method Based on Modified RMA with Sub-Aperture Images Fusion for Spaceborne Spotlight SAR

The small satellite SAR has received increasing attention due to its flexibility and low cost. But limited by the data transmission technology, real-time transmission of a large amount of raw data generated by the spaceborne spotlight SAR can hardly be achieved. Meanwhile, the azimuth bandwidth of the spotlight mode is larger than the PRF, resulting in aliasing of the azimuth spectrum. Based on these, this paper proposes a real-time scheme for small satellite SAR with spotlight mode. The method can solve the problem of data transmission and eliminate spectrum overlap in Doppler domain by means of sub-aperture processing. The modified range migration algorithm (RMA) is used to perform range compression and range cell migration compensation (RCMC) on sub-aperture data. Then dechirp in the azimuth time domain is applied to obtain the low-resolution complex image focused in the range time-azimuth frequency domain. Finally, all theected onto a grid image with azimuth interval matching the azimuth full-resolution to complete image fusion.