ISAR Imaging of Rotating Targets Using Matrix Pencil Back-Projection Method

Shahida G Qadirl, Yangyu Fan2, Wang Bao-ping3, Maryam Shabbir4, Fatima Arneebs
1,2,3School of Electronics & Information, Northwestern Polytechnical University,
Xi'an, 710072, Shaanxi, P. R. China
1.4 Center of Excellence in Science & Applied Technologies, Pakistan

lshahida qadir@yahoo.com, 2fan yangyu@sina.com

3 wbpluo@sina.com, 4te engineer@hotmail.com. Sfatimaarneeb@gmail.com

Abstract- This article mulls over the implementation of v 'e+ ¥

Matrix Pencil back Projection (MPBP) algorithm on Inverse
. " :
Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR) data of uniformly rotating '0 • a. :
targets. The method is recently proposed by Sahin Ozsoy et al. \ .
. " :
for Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). In this paper, the method
. . .
is implemented with FIR pre-filtering instead of using . . .

approximate prolate spheroidal wave functions given in the

original method. Moreover, the article emphasizes on the
comparison between the standard Convolution
projection Method (CBP) and MPBP methods in terms of;
reconstructed image quality when a small set of data is used;
noise performance for additive zero-mean white Gaussian
noise. MPBP and CBP are applied both on the simulated and
the experimental ISAR data. The ku-band experimental ISAR
data is acquired for the targets (spheres and corner reflectors)
arranged in different geometries in a Far-Field Compact
Range Anechoic chamber at AERO, Pakistan.
Keywords: ISAR, Radar Imaging & RCS measurement,
Matrix pencil Method, PBP, CPB
I. INTRODUCTION
A radar image presents a spatial distribution of scattering
centers usually by providing quantitative description of the
target's scattering properties, for instance, the locations and
intensities of the different scattering centers [1]. The image is
referred to as a SAR image (moving the radar system while
the target remains stationary) or an ISAR image (by holding
the radar at a fixed location while the aspect angle of the
target changes). In the far-field scenario, spotlight-mode
SARIISAR imaging is a narrow-band version of Computer
Aided Tomography [2, 3]. The tomographic viewpoint has
established that a demodulated, reflected pulse represents a
bandpass-filtered radial slice of the two-dimensional Fourier
transform (2DFT) of the target area reflectivity [4]. The
angle of the radial slice is equal to the aspect angle of target
with respect to Radar line of sight for ISAR imaging. The
nonzero region of the radial slice (i.e. the passband) is
centered at the radar carrier frequency fc, and the width is
governed by the bandwidth of the transmitted pulse 1'1./ . The
collection of demodulated returns gathered over the entire
synthetic aperture yields Fourier data in the annulus segment
shown in Fig. 1. The radial dimension is alternatively called
range, while crossrange or azimuth refers to the dimension
Back
1)
2)
u
Fig. I. Fourier-domain annulus region for SARIISAR data collection
orthogonal to range [4]. The tomography based algorithms
i.e. standard Convolution backprojection (CBP) [5] and
MPBP proposed by Sabin Ozsoy et al. for SAR [2] make use
of the data on the polar grid directly to form a Cartesian
image, and yields a higher quality image because all the
Fourier data are used. The MPBP method had unified the
principles of SARIISAR, tomography (Back Projection) and
Parametric modeling Matrix Pencil method (MPM) [6]. By
this way it had overcome the poor range resolution problem
encountered in standard CBP due to limited bandwidth of the
available data in radial direction for single imaging angle.
This in turn had improved the overall observed image
reconstructed by MPBP.
This paper applies the standard CBP and MPBP to the
ISAR data (both on simulated and experimental) and
compares the results. We have considered a stepped
frequency data collection system which is a control
environment so, the system specific errors such as residual
video phase, skew, range mismatch, etc., are not presented.
The MPBP method used is incorporated with FIR bandpass
filter [7] instead of using APSW function given in [2].
Section II of the paper gives a brief of back projection
from the perspective of ISAR imaging principle. Section III
states the main steps of Standard CBP algorithm and MPBP
Algorithm. Computer simulations for the comparison of
noise performance of two methods are given in Section,
while section V emphasizes on their observed image
reconstruction quality using a small portion of acquired
experimental data. Section VI is the conclusion.

978-1-4577-1929-5/12/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE

Proceedings of 2012 9th International Bhurban Conference on Applied Sciences & Technology (IBCAST) 348
Islamabad, Pakistan, 9th - 12th January, 2012
 II. BACK-PROJECTION FOR ISAR

A microwave imaging system based on ISAR principle is

depicted in Fig .2. () is angle of rotation of target around the ,········f·· ....:,,
· (x, y)
Tmmmitter
center 0 from anticlockwise direction. The coordinate u-v is <l · · . �
immobile to the radar and the co-ordinate x-y is fixed on the ---/----=:�-"'--*--1 ·
target which will circumrotate around the target. <1... .. . .. R,
Receiver x
For a target model consisting of point like M scatterers,
M

f(x,y)= L aj6(x-x,)6(y-y,) can be defined as a 2-D

1=1

target reflectivity density function (TRD). For this target, the

Fig. 2, Rotating Target Geometry
projected target reflectivity density (PTRD) function (also
called the "Radon transform" of f(x,y) ) along the from kVmio to kVm� in radial direction. So the estimated version
v direction) is expressed in [2] as; of equation (5) with new limits of integration can be written
M

p«(}, v)= L aj6(v-xj sin(}- Yj cos (} )

:1 [I F(B, k,) l k,I 1
as;
i=l
(1)
j(x,y)= e''"'" dk, dO (6)
i=!

Where (x,, Yj) is the location of the ith scatterer. The object Defining the spatial bandwidth B= kVm� - k"mio of
extent is [mite and we denote the maximum scatterer F((), k,,), equation (6) can be simplified by redefining the
distance from the origin as D. When the antenna of
transmitter sends out a signal to the rotating target the
integration limits for k" i-e the process of translating a
bandpass signal to baseband signal) ;

] eJ2ffk",,"'"d(}
received echo signal related to PTDR is given as follows [8];
A;r
00

F / (}, f)= f p«(}, v) e-J""TR , dv

( )
(2)
XY
Bmin
[
j(x,y)= li,J SF«(},kv + k"o'o} j k" + k"o"" l eJ2ffk,V dkv
0
(7)

�
Where, R(x,y)= (Ro + V)2 + U2 is radial distance between
The expression in brackets is called the "filtered back­
projection" and can be separated out as follows;
radar and scatterer location (x,y) (see Fig. 2). Under the B

assumption of far field imaging scenario i-e D < �RoAc /2 , C>e(v)= fF«(}, k" + k"m) l k" + k"mi" IeJ21rk,y dk"
radial distance can be approximated as;
R(x,y)= Ro + v (3) = IF-I {F«(}, k" + k"mio *" + k"mio I} (8)
Ac is the wavelength related to the fc of transmitted signal. =p«(}, v) * IF-I {I k" + k"mio I}
Ro being a known constant (i-e distance between radar and Equation (8) depicts that the back-projection is the inverse
target rotary center 0) can be eliminated through Fourier transform of F«(}, k" + k"mi" ) I k" + k"mi" I which is
'
demodulation process by using carrier e-j41rRo/J.. . With all
above assumptions and use of spatial frequency
simply the PTRD p«(}, v) convolved with the inverse
variable kv = 2/ A = k / Jr , equation (2) is briefed and written transform of spatial frequency domain filter I kv + k"mio I [4]
in terms of x-y co-ordinates as; .Then estimated target reflectivity density (also called 2D
00 00

COSII ISAR image) can be given by following expression;

F«(},k,J= f f f(x,y)e-J21rk,(xsmll+)' ) dxdy (4)
II"",
Where, v= X sin () + y cos () is a transformation between the
u-v and x-y co-ordinate system. Eqn. 4 is a 2D Fourier
j(x,y)= IImf QII(v)ej21rk'mi""d(} (9)
i"
transform of TRD. Hence, by taking the inverse transform of
it in terms of polar coordinates, and using III. ISAR IMAGE RECONSTRUCTION METHODS
the F«(} + Jr,kv )= F«(},-k,J, we get TRD as [2];

1[,1 l
The PTRD function defined in previous section can also
be thought as the range profile [8]. For a target consisting of
f(x,y)= F( O, k, J I k, I ,J'''" dk, dO (5) discrete scattering centers, the range profile will be
composed of Dirac functions at radial locations Vj . Hence,
In actual ISAR system data is collected over a limited obtaining the PTRD function corresponds to the problem of
annular sector i-e from (}min to (}max in angular direction and obtaining the complex exponential components of a function

Proceedings of 2012 9th International Bhurban Conference on Applied Sciences & Technology (IBCAST) 349
Islamabad, Pakistan, 9th - 12th January, 2012
 CBP MPBP
(in this case the Fourier transform of PTRD) from its limited
number of equi-spaced samples. In the process of ISAR (b)
10 (a) 10
g g �o
image reconstruction, the data F((),k,,) acquired on the <1>
01 :g. '0
ffi 0 ffi 0 00 '0
0::
annular sector ( i10 , i1f ) is first translated to c � � �
� � G-
o -10 o -10
F((),k" + kmiJ and multiplied with Ik" + kmm I at every () . I == I ==� SNR=26dB I
•

l'::: := �---.J l'::: := ----.J

Then based on the methods used to obtain filtered (c)
g 10 g 10 (d)
backprojection function Qe (v) (range profIles convolved -"'&-
:g. :g. J:l
ffi 0 ffi 0 - :n: -
with spatial frequency domain filter) from resultant data 0:: 0::
� =&- .
Q,,�
following two schemes are implemented in this paper; - � -
� -10
I . SNR=17dB I
A. Standard Convolution Back Projection

To reconstruct the 2D ISAR image the scheme is g 10 (f)

� -
=-<0-
implemented as follows; <1>
01 -'
- -
� oa
� .-�
ffi 0 - st - -
0:: -
l. Qe (v) is obtained by applying the lD IFFT on
� � -=0=
--0""-

o
�
-10 . SNR=13dB I
F((),k" + kmin )Ik" + kmm I at every () . Hanning window 1
-40 -20 0 20 40 -40 -20 0 20 40
operation is used to reduce the values of range Cross Range (m) Cross Range (m)
sidelobes. No pre-fIltering is applied.
2. Linear interpolation is used to get the values of Fig. 3.Generic Aircraft Model (Red Circles) & Contours of Images
reconstructed at different values of SNR by
Qe(v) on all possible locations of vj 'so (a.c.e) CBP
3. Tomographic reconstruction equation (9) is applied (b,d,f) MPBP

on interpolated QB(V) in to get the final 2D ISAR

The simulated ISAR data was generated from
image.
f = 800MHz to f 890MHz in 14 equally spaced frequency
=

B. Matrix Pencil Back Projection

points and over an angular sector of i10 3° in 30 equally =

This section only lists down the main steps of PBP
implemented in this paper. For detail readers are referred to
[2];
1. ID Band Pass Forward Backward Matrix Pencil
Method (BPFBMP) [2, 6, 7, 10] is applied on
F((),k" + kmiJlk" + kmm I at every () to estimate the
spatial locations and complex scattering intensities of
the prominent scatterers in the target space. Pencil
Parameter L was chosen between N/3 and 2N/3 as
recommended by [9], where N is the total number of
frequency points. To further suppress the affect of
noise in the reconstructed image, the number of
prominent scattering centers if is estimated from the
dominant singular values of Pencil data matrix against
a threshold criterion defined in [2].
2. High resolution profIles Qe(v) are constructed using
spatial locations and complex scattering intensities
estimated at every aspect angle of the target and then
linearly interpolated.
3. Tomographic reconstruction equation (9) is applied
on interpolated QB(v) to get the final 2D ISAR image.
IV. COMPUTER SIMULATIONS
For simulation work a generic-type aircraft target is
defined by a set of eight point scatterers [1] as shown by red
circles in all plots of Fig. 3.
spaced angles using mathematical expression given in [1].
Zero mean white Gaussian noise was added into the
simulated data. The images were reconstructed by standard
CBP and MPBP (setting Pencil Parameter L=6) at Signal to
Noise Ratios (SNR) of (26dB, 17dB, 13dB). The resultant
plots are presented in Fig. 3. From the results, it is observed
that Standard CBP had reconstructed a low observed quality
images even at high SNR value of 26dB. This is because of
the poor range resolution. For a bandwidth of 90MHz, the
achievable Range Resolution was dR l.7m for the Range =
profIles reconstructed by IFFT operation used in CBP. The
use of hanning window further degraded range resolution,
which in turn made it more difficult to distinguish the
scatterers in the images reconstructed by CBP. However, it
is observed that even without using pre-filtering operation,
the contamination of CBP images by noise like scatterers is
less severe at even SNR value of 13dB. On the other hand,
PBP had generated a cleaner and sharp image at the SNR
value of 26dB. The performance of the PBP method is still
good at the SNR value of 17dB, as all the eight point
scatterers are still well estimated and distinguishable.
However, more noise-like scatterers have contaminated the
image. The contamination by noise like scatterers had
increased at SNR =13dB because of strong noise
perturbations. However, the problem can be mitigated and
cleaner image can be obtained down to low SNR (i-e 13dB),
if the value of threshold (based on singular values selection)
used to separate signal space from the noise space is

Proceedings of 2012 9th International Bhurban Conference on Applied Sciences & Technology (IBCAST) 350
Islamabad, Pakistan, 9th - 12th January, 2012
 TABLE I V. EXPERIMENTAL DATA
PARAMETERS FOR THREE TYPES OF EXPERIMENTS
Test2 Test3 Three tests were conducted in Far-Field Compact range
Testl
Parameters 4Comer 5Comer by using spheres and comer retlectors_ 801 retlected
2Splteres
Reflectors Reflectors frequency points were acquired against each of the 241
N (MHz) 75 655 655 angular positions of the targets. However, a small portion
�e 7.50 5.50 6.60 (subset) out of the total data (241x801) is used for image
fc (GHz) 14.0375 14.3275 14.3275 reconstruction both by standard CBP and MPBP. Details of
Data Sub Set used the test parameters for the three tests and resolution
16xl6 23xl32 23xl32 achieved by two image reconstruction methods are given in
(f)points X fpoints )
Table L Contour plots of the Images reconstructed by CBP
Pencil Parameter L 7 45 45
and MPBP are given in Figures 4(a &b) for test l, Figures
5(a & b) for test2 and Figures 6 (b &c) for test3. It is
obvious from all the results that observed quality of images
0 .5 0 .5
reconstructed by MPBP is very high than those produced by
� � CBP. The only reason behind this is the super resolution
Q) Q)
CJ> CJ>
co - co - - - �- �
'" 0 ---
T '" 0 achieved in the range profiles constructed by the former
a:: a::
co co ,
0
" "
0
method, which had improved the overall observed image
0 0
quality_ Otherwise, both methods showed the same cross
-0 .5 -0. 5
-0 .5 0 0 .5 -0 .5 0 0 .5 range resolution_ Targets reconstructed by CBP image are
Cross Range (m) Cross Range (m)
severely spread in range_ The situation is even more worst in
(a) (b)
Figure 6b, which is CBP reconstructed image for the test3
Fig. 4. Contour plots of Images of Two spheres (3cm & 5cm in diameter setup shown in Figure6a_ In Figure 6b, Corner reflectors
respectively, placed in at same range and separated by 30cm in cross range)
CR l is merged with CR3 and CR2 is merged with CR 4 and
(a) By CBP (b) By MPBP
are no more distinguishable_ However, in Figure 6c of
MPBP, they are in better visibility, although shadowing
05 0 .5
affect of CR l on CR3 and CR2 on CR 4 can still be noticed

$ 0" �
: �
� � in this figure_
Q) Q)
'"
CJ>
co
a::
0
CJ>
co
'"
a::
0 o---�--
:�
VL CONCLUSION

'
0
0
co
"
co
"
0
0
0 ,' 'f� ); I
•

An ISAR imaging system of uniformly rotating target is

,
-0. 5 -0 .5 described for the application of CBP and MPBP_ Methods
-0 .5 0 0 .5 -0 .5 0 0 .5
Cross Range (m) Cross Range (m) were applied on both the simulated and experimental ISAR
(a) (b) data. The superiority of MPBP to standard CBP in terms of
Fig. 5. Contour plots of Images of 4 Corner reflectors (arranged in
range resolution improvement and overall observed image
Parallelogram Geometry) quality is found very promising in all the reconstructed
(a) By CBP (b) By MPBP images_ However, CBP is observed to be relatively more
resistant to strong noise perturbation_ But MPBP could be
more promising candidate for image reconstruction, when
the amount of available data is smalL It is also good for
generating imaging for the application of target recognition
(a)
05 0 .5 and classification_

ttl
�
Q)
CJ>
�
Q)
CJ>
� t
co co
'" 0 '" 0 - ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
a:: a::
co co
"
0 0
" The authors are especially grateful to S_ K Naqib and
0 0
, Compact Range staff for providing data for our work
-0. 5 -0 .5
-0. 5 0 0 .5 -0 .5 0 0 .5
Cross Range (m) Cross Range (m)
(b) (c) REFERENCES

Fig. 6. Contour plots of Images of 5 Corner reflectors

(a) Actual Target Setup (b) By CBP (b) By MPBP [I] J. w. Odendaal, E. Barnard, and C. W. 1. Pistorius, "Two­
Dimensional Superresolution Radar Imaging Using the MUSIC
increased_ But this involves the risk of missing some valid Algorithm", IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagal., vol. 42, pp. 1386-1391,
October I994.
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Proceedings of 2012 9th International Bhurban Conference on Applied Sciences & Technology (IBCAST) 351
Islamabad, Pakistan, 9th - 12th January, 2012
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Proceedings of 2012 9th International Bhurban Conference on Applied Sciences & Technology (IBCAST) 352
Islamabad, Pakistan, 9th - 12th January, 2012