Adaptive Multicarrier OFDM SAR Signal Processing

Abstract:
We consider orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals for synthetic aperture radar (SAR). The signals are composed of a number of sub-bands orthogonal to each other at the sub-carrier positions. The phase history necessary for SAR cross-range reconstruction is performed via phase estimation using all OFDM sub-carriers, as opposed to a conventional approach of extracting the phase from a carrier/centroid frequency component. Another aspect of OFDM radar signals is adaptive waveform design. In this paper we outline the corresponding method of ultra-wideband (UWB) OFDM SAR slow-time signal processing and demonstrate, via simulations, its performance in several scenarios of interest.