Evaluation of polarimetric through-the-wall radar measurements

Tommy Johansson; Ain Sume; Jonas Rahm; Stefan Nilsson; Anders Örbom

doi:10.1117/12.919037

3 May 2012 Evaluation of polarimetric through-the-wall radar measurements

Tommy Johansson, Ain Sume, Jonas Rahm, Stefan Nilsson, Anders Örbom

Proceedings Volume 8361, Radar Sensor Technology XVI; 83610O (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.919037
Event: SPIE Defense, Security, and Sensing, 2012, Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Abstract

Fully polarimetric through-the-wall radar measurements with high spatial resolution have been attained by using the ISAR (Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar) technique. Polarimetric methods may reduce the effects of the wall interaction and increase the contrast between humans and the background. The main scene in the measurements was a human sitting in a small wooden cabin. The cabin was placed on a turntable and rotated, to obtain ISAR imaging. By switching the transmitter and receiver antennas between horizontal and vertical polarizations, four polarization combinations were obtained. Phase coherence was maintained through a whole measurement series. This enabled co-processing of the whole collected data set with coherent methods. A statistical description of the measured data was used, with the polarimetric coherency matrix applied to the received signals. ISAR images produced for the TTW scenes show that the human can be discerned from the background. The contrast between the human and the background was found to be greater with vertical polarization at transmit and receive, with less contrast using cross-polarization or horizontal co-polarization, due to the horizontal wall grain orientation. A classification scheme based on the eigenparameters of the coherency matrix (entropy, anisotropy and alpha angle) and the backscatter power has been tested to discriminate between different target objects in the cabin. The method shows some promise, but a reliable classification has not yet been attained.

Citation Download Citation

Tommy Johansson, Ain Sume, Jonas Rahm, Stefan Nilsson, and Anders Örbom "Evaluation of polarimetric through-the-wall radar measurements", Proc. SPIE 8361, Radar Sensor Technology XVI, 83610O (3 May 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.919037

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