27 September 2023 Imaging and detection method for low signal-to-noise ratio airborne synthetic aperture ladar signals
Jinghan Gao, Daojing Li, Kai Zhou, Anjing Cui, Jiang Wu, Shumei Wu, Yefei Wang, Kai Liu, Songnian Tan, Yang Gao, Yuan Yao
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

Vibration greatly impairs the imaging quality of airborne synthetic aperture ladar (SAL), so the vibration phase error must be estimated and compensated before imaging. Limited by the laser’s average power, the high pulse repetition frequency of the SAL will result in lower peak-power of the laser, thereby reducing the echo signal’s single-pulse signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In the case of a low SNR, the coherence between channels worsens, and the vibration phase-error compensation method based on interferometry is difficult to apply. We analyze the imaging SNR and resolution of the echo signal when the airborne SAL observes noncooperative targets by intentionally broadening the transmitting and receiving beams, discussing the imaging processing flow of the low SNR signal under conditions of beam-broaden and platform vibration. The data processing flow includes the phase correction of the echo signal using the transmitting reference channel signal. Based on the flight parameters of the airborne SAL, the echo was dechirped and narrow-band filtered to reduce noise. After subaperture division, the spatial correlation algorithm was used to estimate and compensate the vibration phase error, and the range-Doppler algorithm was used to achieve strip imaging. At the same time, the phase gradient autofocus algorithm was introduced to improve the focusing effect. The processing results of flight experiment data of the airborne SAL corresponding to noncooperative targets at 1 km demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method.

© 2023 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)
Jinghan Gao, Daojing Li, Kai Zhou, Anjing Cui, Jiang Wu, Shumei Wu, Yefei Wang, Kai Liu, Songnian Tan, Yang Gao, and Yuan Yao "Imaging and detection method for low signal-to-noise ratio airborne synthetic aperture ladar signals," Optical Engineering 62(9), 098104 (27 September 2023). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.OE.62.9.098104
Received: 1 March 2023; Accepted: 19 September 2023; Published: 27 September 2023
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KEYWORDS
Signal to noise ratio

Vibration

Error analysis

Signal processing

Tunable filters

Signal detection

Doppler effect

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