We require continuous and unambiguous radar tracking of surface moving
targets for several minutes to target and engage moving targets. Conventional
radar surface moving target trackers typically drop or confuse tracks
after only a short time. If we can couple state of the art motion-compensated
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) techniques with advanced Surface Moving
Target Information (SMTI) techniques, we may be far better able to automatically
and continuously track individual targets through zero radial velocity
in difficult environments.
Without motion compensation, moving targets within SAR images are generally
blurred and difficult to detect. MITRE has developed a technique called
the Keystone Formatting for motion compensation of targets, the advantage
of which is that it can compensate for several targets moving at different
velocities simultaneously. Along with acceleration correction, this
produces sharp images.
Complimentary to the Keystone'd Range-Doppler-Intensity image,
one can form a phase-interferometry image. In the phase image, where
all points on the non-moving surface nominally appear as a continuum
of phase differences while the moving targets appear as discontinuities.
By judicious comparison of both the intensity image and the phase image,
it is possible to detect and locate moving targets in the SAR.
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