I.
INTRODUCTION
Joint Time-Frequency
Transform for Radar
Range-Doppler Imaging
VICTOR C. CMEN
Naval Research Laboratory
SHIE QIAN
National Instruments Corp.
Conventional radar imaging uses the Fourier transform to
retrieve Doppler information. However, due to the complex
motion of a target, the Doppler frequency shifts are actually
time-varying. By using the Fourier transform, the Doppler
spectrum becomes smeared and the image is blurred. Without
resorting to sophisticated motion compensation algorithms,
the image blurring problem can be resolved with the joint
time-frequency transform. High-resolution time-frequency
transforms are investigated, and examples of applications to radar
imaging of single and multiple targets with complex motion are
given.
Manuscript received December 28, 1995; revised March 12, 1997.
IEEE Log No. T-AES/34/2/02997.
This work was sponsored by the Office of Naval Research.
Authors’ addresses: V. C. Chen, Code 5360.1, Radar Division,
Naval Research Laboratory, 4555 Overlook Ave. SW, Washington,
DC 20375-5000; S. Qian, DSP Group, National Instruments,
Austin. TX 78730.
0018-9251/98/$10.00 @ 1998 IEEE
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Radar transmits electromagnetic waves to a target
and receives the reflected signals from the target.
The spatial distribution of the reflectivity function
of the target, referred to as the image of the target,
can be reconstructed from the received signals. A
radar image is usually mapped onto a range and
cross-range plane. The range resolution of a radar
image is directly related to the bandwidth of the
transmitted radar signal, and the cross-range resolution
is determined by the effective antenna beamwidth,
which is inversely proportional to the effective length
of the antenna aperture. To achieve high cross-range
resolution without using a large physical antenna
aperture, synthetic array processing is widely used.
Synthetic array radar processing coherently combines
signals obtained from sequences of small apertures
at different angle-aspects to the target to emulate the
result from a large aperture.
Synthetic array radar includes both synthetic
aperture radar (SAR) and inverse synthetic aperture
radar (TSAR) [I]. ISAR uses Doppler information
to obtain the cross-range resolution-The differential
Doppler shifts of adjacent scatterers of the target
can be observed in the radar receiver; therefore, the
distribution of the target’s reflectivity can be measured
by Doppler spectra. The conventional method to
retrieve Doppler information is the Fourier transform.
In order to use the Fourier transform properly,
some restrictions must be applied. During the imaging
time, the scatterers must remain in their range cells,
and their Doppler frequency shifts must be constant.
If the scatterers drift out of their range cells or
their Doppler frequency shifts are time-varying, the
Doppler spectrum obtained from the Fourier transform
will be smeared, and, the radar image will be blurred.
To obtain a focused Fourier radar image, motion
compensation algorithms must be used. Range
tracking can pull the scatterers back into their range
cells; Doppler frequency shifts of these scatterers,
however, can still be time-varying. Then, Doppler
tracking must be applied for phase compensation, so
that Doppler frequency shifts may become constant.
The range tracking and Doppler tracking are the basis
of the standard motion compensation procedure.
If the target is moving smoothly, the standard
motion compensation is good enough to generate
a clear image of the target by using the Fourier
transform. However, when a target exhibits complex
motion, such as rotation and maneuvering, the
standard motion compensation is not sufficient
to generate an acceptable image for viewing and
analysis. In this case, more sophisticated motion
compensation procedures for individual scatterers,
such as polar reformatting, are needed [2].Thus, each
scatterer may remain in its range cell and its Doppler
frequency shift may be constant. Then, the Fourier
 properly to reconstruct a
t requires resampling the
points on the polar sampling
desired sample points
grid [l, 31. However, to
ing, some initial kinematic
can still be blu n the Fourier transform is
rictions of the Fourier transform
if a time-frequency transform
apply a high-resolution
rm to the Doppler processing.
other motion compensation
idual scatterers are necessary
ransform is used. Otherwise,
rform such complicated motion
for individual scatterers. By
sform with a high-resolution
rm, the image blurring caused
Doppler frequency shifts can
transform.
ut suffering image blurring. The
transform, which is specially
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:% Aadat
Fig. 1. Geometry of radar image of moving target.
hence the restrictions of the Fourier transform are still
applied.
We briefly describe the background of radar
imaging of moving targets, the time-varying behavior
of Doppler frequency shifts, and motion compensation
in Section 11. The joint time-frequency transform is
discussed in Section 111, where several time-frequency
transforms are compared in terms of the instantaneous
frequency and the time-frequency concentration. Some
examples of applying the time-frequency imaging
approach to a single target and multiple targets with
complex motion are given in Section IV.
11. RADAR IMAGING OF MOVING TARGETS
The geometry of the radar imaging of a target is
shown in Fig. 1. The target is described in Cartesian
coordinates with its origin located at the geometric
center. For simplicity, we only show a planar target
with the radar located on the target plane along the
Y-axis. Assume the radar transmits a sinusoidal
waveform with a carrier frequency f . At a time
t = 0 the distance from the radar antenna to the
geometric center of the target is R,, and the distance
to the point scatterer, located at (x,,y,), is ro =
( R i + d i + 2d0R, ~inO,)'/~,
where d, = (xi + yo) 2 112
is the distance of the scatterer from the origin of
the object, and 0, = arc tan(y,/x,) is the initial
rotation angle of the point scatterer. If the target has
translational motion with a radial velocity of vR and
a rotational motion with an angular rotation rate
0 about its geometric center, at time t the returned
baseband signal from the point scatterer becomes
where r, is an abbreviation of r(t), p(x,,y,) is the
reflectivity function of the point scatterer, the
range of the point scatterer becomes
487

Fig. 2. Geometry of radar and target.
r(t) = yo + vRt + xo sin Rt + yo cos Rt
and the phase of the baseband signal is
where c is the velocity of the wave propagation.
By taking the time derivative of the phase, the
Doppler frequency shift induced by the motion of the
target is approximately
1 dQr(rt) -
- 2f dr(t)
fD = dt c dt
where the Doppler frequency shift induced by the
translational motion is
( 5 ) then the extraneous phase term of the motion
and that induced by the rotational motion is
Z y 0 R 2t
C Fourier transform (IFT) of the phase compensated
where it has been assumed that Rt is very small,
hence cosRt Z 1 and sinRt G Rt. The first and
the second term of (6) comes from the linear and
quadratic parts of the phase function, respectively.
Clearly, the quadratic part of the rotational Doppler
frequency shift is a function of time. Therefore, the
rotational Doppler frequency shift is time-varying,
even if the rotation rate is a constant.
Based on the returned signal from a single point
scatterer, the returned signal from the target can be
represented as the integration of the returned signals
from all scatterers in the target:
(7) tracking processing, Doppler frequency shifts can still
For a target that has translational and rotational
motion in the global (u,v) coordinate system shown
in Fig. 2. The range R(t) and the rotation angle B(t)
of the target are functions of time. They can be
determined by initial range R, and rotation angle Bo,
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initial velocity vR and angular velocity R, initial radial
acceleration uR and angular acceleration Q, and other
higher order terms as follows
R(t) = R, + v R t + &aRt2+ . ‘ . (8)
and
B(t) = 8, + Rt + & a t 2+ . ’ . .
(9)
The range of a point scatterer at (x,y) in the local
coordinate system is
r(t) = R(t) +xcosB(t) -ysinB(t). (10)
Substituting (10) for the range r in (7), the baseband
signal in the receiver becomes
S(f It = exP(-j4TfR(t)/c)
.
I” /”
-03. -m
P(X,Y>
x exp{-j2dxf,(t) - yf,(t))}dxdy (1 1)
where the components of the spatial frequency are
determined by
= -2f cosO(t)
f (12)
C
and
f = -2f sinB(t). (13)
y c
From (1 1) we know that if the range of the
target is known exactly and the velocity and
acceleration of the motion of the target are constant
and known exactly over the entire imaging time,
exp{ -j47r f R(t)/c} can be exactly removed by
multiplying exp{ + j 4f~R(t)/c} on both sides of (1 1).
Therefore, the reflectivity density function p(x, y) of
the target can be obtained simply by taking the inverse
frequency signature S(f exp{ +j47rf R(t)/c}. The
process of estimating the motion of the target and
removing the extraneous phase term is called the
range tracking. This is a fundamental step of the
standard motion compensation procedure or called
crude motion compensation. Then, the IFT may be
used to construct the reflective density function of the
target. In order to use the Fourier transform properly,
some restrictions must be applied. During the entire
image frame time, the scatterers must remain in
their range cells, and their Doppler frequency shifts
must be constant. If the scatterers drift out of their
range cells or their Doppler frequency shifts are
time-varying, the constructed image by using the
Fourier transform becomes blurred. After the range
be time-varying. Thus, a fine motion compensation
called Doppler tracking should be applied to make
phase compensation, and, hence Doppler frequency
shifts become constant. The range tracking and
Doppler tracking are the bases of the standard motion
compensation.
 MOVINGTARGET RADAR IMAGE containing M range cells, can be obtained. At each
range cell, the N range profiles constitute a new time
Range history series. Then, the motion compensated range
profiles become G’(rm,n),(m = 0, 1, ..., M - 1, n =
0,1, ...,N - 1).
OUtDUl
I The Fourier imaging approach takes the fast
f N Bursts Fourier transform (FFT) for the time history series
and generates an N-point Doppler spectrum, or
Doppler profile. By combining the M Doppler spectra
at M range cells, finally, the M-by-N image is formed
V
M pulses
Transmitted Slepped-
Z(rm,fn) = FFZ{G’(rm,J} (15)
Frequency Signal
where FFTn denotes the FFT operation with
respect to the variable n. Therefore, the radar image
Z(rm,f,) is the target’s reflectivities mapped onto the
range-Doppler plane.
Now, let us examine the relationship between
motion and time-varying spectrum before introducing
the time-frequency transform for Doppler processing.
When the target in Fig. 2 has both the translational
and rotational motion, from (3) and (lo), the phase of
the returned signal from the target becomes

2[R(t)+ xcosO(t) -ysinB(t)]

= 27rf (16)
C
where, for simplicity, we only use the zero and
first-order terms in (8) and (9), i.e., R(t) = R, + vRt
and O(t) = 0, + Rt.
Since the time-derivative of the phase is frequency,
by replacing B(t) with Bo + Rt and R(t) with R, + v,t
and taking time-derivative of the phase function
(16), the Doppler frequency shift can be derived
approximately as

and
(m + n M ) A t , the IM-by-N complex data are organized m r

into a two-dimensional array which represents the

unprocessed spati,1frequency signature of the target
S(f,,J, where m := 0,1, ...,M - 1, n = 0,1, ...,N - 1,
and A t denotes the time interval between pulses.
The radar processor uses the frequency signatures
as the raw data to perform range compression
and the standard inotion compensation. Range
compression funcrions as a matched filter, which
removes frequency or phase modulation and resolves
range. For the SF signals, the range compression
performs an M-point IFT for each of the N received
frequency signatures as
where ZF7, tes the IFT operation with respect
Therefore, N range profiles (i.e., the
target reflectivities in range), each
-y(ClcosO, -R2tsin0,)] (18)
where Bo is the initial target angle. It is clear that
when V , or 0 is changing with time, the Doppler
frequency shift is time-varying. Even if the rotation
rate R is a constant, the rotational motion-induced
Doppler frequency shift foro, is still time-varying.
Other sources of time variation in the Doppler
frequency shift may result from uncompensated
phase errors due to irregularities in the motion of the
target, the fluctuation of the rotation rate of the target,
fluctuation in localizing the rotation center, inaccuracy
in tracking the phase history, and other variations of
the system and the environment. From the relationship
between the range and the phase given in (3), the
phase is very sensitive to the range variation. For

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 Time history series at a single range Cell
0 100 200 300 400
time
Fig. 4. (a) Fourier spectrum. (b) Time-varying spectrum for time
history series at single range cell.
example, for an X-band radar at 9,000 MHz, a Ar =
2 cm range drift can cause A@.,= 4nf Ar/c = 432"
phase deviation, hence a 1.2 Hz Doppler drift within a
1 s observation time, which is larger than the Doppler
resolution and makes the image blurred. Since the
residual phase errors may vary with time, the Doppler
frequency also varies with time.
As is known [7, 81, the Fourier transform only
indicates what frequency components are contained in
the signal; but, it does not tell how frequencies change
with time. By representing the time-varying Doppler
frequency spectrum with the Fourier transform,
the Doppler spectrum becomes smeared as an
example shown in Fig. 4, where the Fourier transform
(Fig. 4(a)) and a time-frequency transform (Fig. 4(b))
are applied to a time history series. Here an adaptive
time-frequency transform [5, 61 is used to calculate
the time-frequency distribution. We can see that the
Fourier transform of the time history series is actually
the integral of the time-frequency transform of the
same series over its time duration. This is because of
the frequency marginal condition. For a signal s(t),
if its joint time-frequency energy distribution P(t,w )
satisfies the following condition:
and
/ P ( t , w ) d w = Is(t)12
where S(w) is the Fourier transform of the signal,
and w = 2nf is the radian frequency, we say that the
time-frequency transform satisfies the frequency and
the time marginal conditions.
From the insight into the image blurring, we
realize that in order to achieve a clear image, the
time-frequency transform should be used to replace
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the Fourier transform. The time-frequency transform
is an efficient way to resolve the image blurring
problem caused by the time-varying Doppler's
behavior without applying sophisticated motion
compensation algorithms for individual scatterers.
I
500 In the next section, we discuss joint time-frequency
transforms, compare their time-frequency
performance, and select a candidate for radar imaging.
111. JOINT TIME-FREQUENCY TRANSFORMS
In principle, any time-frequency transform can be
used to replace the Fourier transform for radar image
reconstruction. However, a desired time-frequency
transform should satisfy the following requirements.
It should have high resolution in both the time and
frequency domains.
It should accurately reflect the instantaneous
frequencies of the analyzed signal.
Joint time-frequency transforms include linear
transforms, such as the short-time Fourier transform
(STFT), and bilinear transforms, such as the
Wigner-Ville distribution (WVD) [7-91.
The STFT is the simplest time-frequency transform
defined as
STFT(~, w) = /-,
,+
3
s(7)w(7 - t )exp{-jwT) d r
(21)
where s ( t ) is a signal and w(t) is a short-time window
function.
The joint time-frequency resolution of the
STFT is limited by the uncertainty principle. With
a time-limited window function, the resolution of
the STFT is determined by the window size. There
is a trade-off between the time resolution and the
frequency resolution. A larger window has higher
frequency resolution but lower time resolution.
The square modulus of the STFT is called the
spectrogram, which is a nonnegative time-frequency
energy distribution.
A. High Resolution Time-Frequency Transforms
According to the Wiener-Khinchin Theorem [ 103,
the power spectrum P ( w ) of a signal s(t) is the Fourier
transform of the autocorrelation function R ( 7 ) of the
(20) signal
L
00
~ ( w =) ls(w)I2 = R(T)exp{-jwr)dT (22)
where the autocorrelation function is independent of
time and is defined as
R(T) = /-,
'00
s(t)s*(t- 7 )dt. (23)
 ~

However, the power spectrum indicates only the Resolution Comparison

1.5
frequency components contained over the entire
time duration of the signal. It does not show how
the frequency components are distributed in time.
An approach to ack ieve high energy concentration
in both the time anll frequency domains is to use the
autocorrelation function and make it time-dependent.
1) Wigner-Elk Distribution: The Fourier

o . : u l L1
transform of a time-dependent autocorrelation function 1.5

R ( ~ , Tis) a time-dependent power spectrum of the

signal, which is a f mction of time and frequency, Le.,
, ,

.8.5 -0.4 -0.3 -0.2 .0.1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5

The choice of R(t;-) is not arbitrary because P(t,w)

1.5
should satisfy the frequency and time marginal
conditions, and the time-dependent spectrum should
be real-valued, i.e., P(t,w) = P*(t,w), and nonnegative. Window size:
; When the time-dependent
: .
autocorrelation function o
is defined as 0
-0.5 -0.4 -0.3 -0.2 -0.1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 05

Fig. 5. Resolution comparison of (a) FFT, (b) WVD, (c) STFT

I
the time-dependeni power spectrum becomes for sinusoidal signal at normalized frequency of 0.1.

WVD(t,W) = 1 +5)
(l S* (t - i)exp{ -j w T } dT
plot frequency distributions of the signal calculated
(26) by a rectangle-windowed Fourier transform and the
WVD, respectively. Because of the symmetrical
window, the frequency distribution of the Fourier
transform actually corresponds to the center point
of the window. Thus, the frequency distribution of
the WVD is also taken at the center point in the time
domain. Fig. 5(c) plots the frequency distribution of
the STFT with a window size of 1/4 of the length of
the signal. These plots clearly show that the WVD
has a frequency resolution close to that of the Fourier

ambiguity functior by
1
Therefore, the W\ D is closely related to the transform except there is a cross-term interference at
the mid-point between the positive and the negative
frequency components. As shown in these plots, the
STFT has lower frequency resolution depending on
the window size. Although the Fourier transform has
the frequency resolution close to that of the WVD,
so that WVD(t, w) and A(T,v) actually form a Fourier it does not have time resolution at all. Therefore,
transform pair. the WVD is the one which not only achieves the
Unlike the spe1:trogram of STFT, in which the frequency resolution close to that of the Fourier
time and frequency resolution is determined by the transform, but also provides high time resolution.
selection of the short-time window function w(t), For a signal s(t) = A(t)exp{j$(t)}, the mean of the
there is no short-tme window function involved instantaneous frequency of the WVD is always equal
in the WVD, whe:e the short-time means the to the signal’s instantaneous frequency [7, 81, i.e.,
window size is srr.aller than the size of the data.
However, the time reversed signal itself in (26) can
be considered as i. matched window, which has the
same size as the s.gnal and is similar to the matched
filter operation in some sense [12]. The frequency
resolution of the WVD is close to that of the Fourier
transform. As an example, given a sinusoid signal
at a normalized frequency of 0.1, Fig. 5(a) and (b)
~

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 Because of the high resolution and the accuracy of the
time-frequency representation, the WVD can be the
candidate time-frequency transform for radar imaging.
However, there is a problem of cross-term interference
associated with it. When the signal contains more than
one component, the WVD will generate cross-term
interference that occurs at spurious locations of the
time-frequency plane. The cross-term possesses a
limited energy which reflects the correlation between
the two related auto-terms and is highly oscillatory.
Although the cross-term has a limited contribution
to signal energy as well as other properties, such as
instantaneous frequency, it often obscures the useful
time-dependent spectrum patterns. To reduce the
cross-term interference, the filtered WVD can be used
to preserve the useful properties of the time-frequency
transform with slightly reduced time-frequency
resolution and largely reduced cross-term interference.
The WVD with linear low-pass filter is characterized
as a Cohen’s class, such as Choi-Williams distribution
[SI, and the distribution with a nonlinear low-pass
filter is the time-frequency distribution series [ 131,
2) Time-Frequency Distribution Series: It is
interesting to note that the cross-term is localized
at the mid-point of two signal components and its
magnitude is oscillatory in the time-frequency domain
[7, 81. On the other hand, as shown in (19), (20), and
(29), the properties of the WVD, such as the marginal
conditions and the instantaneous frequency, are
computed by averaging of WVD(t,w). This suggests
that we could first decompose the WVD as the sum of
2-D localized functions, such as 2-D Gabor expansion,
where {Dm,n,p,,}are the coefficients of the expansion
and Hm,n,p,q(t,w)
is a 2-D Gaussian function given by
x exp{-a2(w +jqATw}
(3
where the parameters m and p are the time index
and the frequency index, respectively, n and q
characterize the rate of oscillation of the 2-D Gaussian
functions, and AT and AW are the time sampling
step and the frequency sampling step, respectively.
Substituting (30) into (19), (20), and (29), we find
that the important properties of the time-frequency
distribution, such as marginal distributions and
instantaneous frequency, are mainly determined by
those Hm,n,p,q(t,
w ) which possess low oscillation.
The highly oscillatory Hm,n,p,q(t,
w ) has a smaller
average, hence has negligible influence to those
important properties. On the other hand, the highly
w)are directly associated
oscillatory terms Hm,n,p,q(t,
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50 100 150 200 250
Time Time
50 100 150 200 250
Time
(a) (b) (c)
Fig. 6. Comparison of (a) zero-order TFDS, (b) 4th-order TFDS,
(c) 12th-order TFDS for 4 Gaussian modulated sinusoidal signals.
with cross-terms [7, 81. If we use the leading terms
(with small n and q) to represent the time-varying
spectrum, the resulting presentation is expected
to well delineate the time-varying spectrum with
limited cross-term interference. The new time-varying
spectrum is named the time-frequency distribution
series (TFDS), Le.,
where d denotes the order of TFDS. For n = q = 0,
Hm,o,p,o(t,w) characterizes energy distributions of
the Gaussian function in the joint time-frequency
domain. The energy contained in Hm,O,p,o(t,~) is equal
to the energy of an optimally concentrated Gaussian
w) is usually called the energy
function. Hm,n,p,q(t,
atom. Therefore, the signal’s energy distribution in
the joint time-frequency domain can be thought as
the superposition of the number of infinite energy
atoms. As described in [7, 131, all those energy atoms
are concentrated, symmetrical, and oscillatory. The
energy contained in each individual atom is inversely
proportional to the rate of its oscillation. The highly
oscillatory atoms possess negligible energy but
are directly related to cross-term interference. The
parameter d balances the resolution and cross-term
interference. When d is small, TFDSd(t,w)has low
cross-term interference but poor resolution. When
d is large, TFDSd(t,w) has good resolution but
strong cross-term interference. This can be seen in
Fig. 6, where four Gaussian modulated sine waves
are used to compare zero-order TFDS, 4th-order
TFDS, and 12th-order TFDS. As proved in [7, 131,
when the order d = 0, the TFDS is equivalent to the
spectrogram of the STFT, and as the order goes to
infinite, the TFDS converges to the WVD. In most
applications, the order is set to 3 or 4.
The basic procedure of computing TFDS can be
summarized as follows.
Compute the Gabor transform, which is the STFT
with Gaussian short-window function, to find the 2-D
Gabor coefficients Dm,n,p,q
in (32).
 Gabor coefficients

er to the resulting /
50 100 150 200 250 50 100 150 200 250 50 100 150 200 250

j 0M
O
A :
Instant lreq Instant. Ireq. Instant. lreq.
1, li

is proportional to the order ! 0 5 ' M

d of the TFDS. 2
50 100 150 200 250 50 100 150 200 250 50 100 150 200 250

Instant bandwidth Instant. bandwidth Instant. bandwidth

in the next section.

of the Time-Frequency Transforms:

(d
Fig. 7. Performance comparison in terms of instantaneous
frequency (dotted line: true instantaneous frequency) and
instantaneous bandwidth using linear chirp signal with Gaussian
envelope. (a) STFT. (b) 4th-order TFDS. (c) WVD.

the time-frequency distribution. and the instantaneous bandwidth is

dividual peaks themselves
to display radar images,
tration is more desirable
ion of the image. The Because a determines the window size, the result is
window dependent.
However, for the WVD, the time-dependent power
spectrum of the above signal becomes

concentration.
2 (w - 2pt
a - wo)2 }. (38)

The instantaneous frequency is

and the instantaneous bandwidth is

where P ( t ) = JP(c,w)dw is the marginal distribution,
and the instantant ous frequency ( w )It becomes ffwlt = (a/2)"2. (40)
1 From (37) and (40), we can see that the instantaneous
- /'wP(t,w)dw
27r bandwidth of the WVD is higher than that of the
(34)
I

STFT. However, there are no closed forms of the

instantaneous frequency and bandwidth available
for the TFDS. As a matter of fact, the WVD has the
Consider a chirp signal with a Gaussian envelope, highest time-frequency concentration among the linear
I
as well as bilinear time-frequency transforms [7, 81.
(35) Fig. 7 shows a comparison of the time-frequency

r
concentration, the instantaneous frequency and the
instantaneous bandwidth for the STFT, the TFDS, and
For the STFT with an energy-normalized Gaussian
window ~ ( t=)( 0 / 7 r ) ' / ~ exp{ -ar2/2}, as calculated in the WVD. The WVD has the highest time-frequency
concentration or lowest instantaneous bandwidth, and
[7, 81, the instant neous frequency is
the instantaneous frequency accurately reflects the true
U instantaneous frequency of the signal. Depending on
)/.I,I = WO 4- -2Pt a+a the order of the distribution, the TFDS has slightly

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Receiver
Motion Compensation
Joint Time-Frequency Image Processing
( Range tracking &
Doppler tracking )
Fig. 8. Block diagram of time-frequency radar image
reconstruction.
lower time-frequency concentration than the WVD,
and can also accurately reflect the true instantaneous
frequencies of the signal. However, the STFT has
lower time-frequency concentration and a deviation
from the true instantaneous frequencies. In this
example, the instantaneous bandwidth in normalized
frequency is 0.007 for the WVD, 0.012 for the
4th-order TFDS, and 0.03 for the STFT. Thus, the
time-frequency concentration of the STFT is about
4.3 times lower than that of the WVD and about 2.4
times lower than that of the 4th-order TFDS. Since
high time-frequency concentration and low cross-term
interference are desired for time-frequency imaging,
we choose the TFDS for its higher time-frequency
cqncentration, lower cross-term interferences, and
easier implementation [7, 131.
B. Application to Radar Imaging
We have discussed the basic concept of radar
range-Doppler imaging and shown the conventional
radar imaging system based on the Fourier transform.
However, to achieve clear images of moving targets,
the time-frequency transforms which have superior
resolution, low cross-term interferences, and unbiased
estimation of the instantaneous frequency spectrum
should be used.
Fig. 8 illustrates the radar imaging system based
on the time-frequency transform. The standard motion
compensation is necessary prior to the time-frequency
image reconstruction. The only difference between the
proposed time-frequency radar imaging system and
the conventional radar imaging system lies in that the
Fourier transform is replaced by the time-frequency
transform followed by time sampling as shown in
Fig. 8. The Fourier-based imaging approach generates
only one image frame from an M x N I and Q data.
AS described in Section IT the data consists of M time
history series, each having the length of N . However,
the time-frequency based imaging approach takes the
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time-frequency transform for each time history series
and generates an N x N time-Doppler distribution.
By combining the M time-Doppler distributions at M
range cells, the N x M x N time-range-Doppler cube
Q(r,,f,,t,) can be formed
1
where 7 F ndenotes the time-frequency operation with
respect to the variable n.
At a particular time instant ti, only one
range-Doppler image frame Q(r,, fn,tn = ti) can
be extracted from the cube. There are a total of N
image frames available, and every one represents
a full range-Doppler image at a particular time
instant. Therefore, by replacing the Fourier
transform with the time-frequency transform, a 2-D
range-Doppler Fourier image frame becomes a 3-D
time-range-Doppler image cube. By sampling in time,
a time sequence of 2-D range-Doppler images can be
viewed [14, 151. Each ipdividual time-sampled frame
from the cube provides not only a clear image with
superior resolution but also time-varying properties
from one time to another. According to the frequency
marginal condition (19), the integration of the N time
frames is the Fourier image of the data
tN
z(rm3fJ = >:Q(r,,f,,t,>.
tn=to
(42)
Generally, it is not necessary to take the maximal N
time samples because the Doppler variation from one
sampling to the next sampling is not significant. In
many cases, 16 equally spaced samples may be good
enough to show the detailed Doppler variations.
In the next Section, we give some examples of
using the TFDS to reconstruct superior radar images.
IV. EXAMPLES
The following examples demonstrate the
time-frequency approach to radar imaging of single
target with translational motion, with rotational
motion, and multiple targets with circular motion. The
radar data is simulated with a SF waveform. Other
waveforms, such as LFM and chirp-pulse waveforms
can also be applied to the time-frequency imagiftg
approach.
A. Single Target with Translational Motion and Velocity
Fluctuation
In the simulation, the radar is assumed operating
at 9,000 MHz and transmits a SF waveform. In each
burst, a total of 64 stepped frequencies are used
to cover a total of 150 MHz bandwidth or achieve
1.O m range resolution. The pulse repetition frequency
(PRF) of 20,000 pulsesh is used to cover the entire

i Ran@ (meter)
Fig. 9. Radar imbge of simulated aircraft with smoothly
/translational motion.
target. The observsltion time should be long enough
to achieve the desired cross-range resolution. In
our simulation, 0.812 s observation time with 256
samples of the time history series is used. Therefore,
the cross-range resplution is 0.44 m. The radar
image consists of 64 range-cells and 256 Doppler
frequencies. , easily see that by using the time-frequency transform,
An aircraft is simulated in terms of its 3-D
reflectivity density1 function p(x, y , z). It is initially
located at ( x , = 70 m, yo = 1600 m, zo = 100 m) and
has only a translat onal motion with a velocity of v =
120 m/s along a tr ck at 19, = 130" from the u-axis in
~
the global coordinkte (u,v) in Fig. 2. The translational
motion can induce1 an equivalent angular rotation with
an angular velocitl of R = vsinB,R,,/R~ = 3.28"/s,
where Ryz = (y," + K,")'/~ and R, = (xi + yo2 + z,)2 1/2 .
Thus, the image 01 the aircraft can be generated as
shown in Fig. 9.
If there is a flu'ctuation in the velocity v(t) = v(0) t
Av(t), it can induce an equivalent radial velocity
fluctuation as well as an equivalent angular velocity
I
Range
(a)
Fig. 10. Radar image of simulated aircraft with translational moving and velocity fluctuation by using (a) Fourier transform and
(b) time-frequency transform.
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fluctuation. The velocity fluctuation is induced by
assuming that Av(t) is a sine-type function of time.
Even if the fluctuation causes only a maximum
velocity variation of 0.5 m / s with the above mentioned
velocity (which results in a maximum range
fluctuation of 0.1 m), the uncompensated phase error
due to this fluctuation can cause the reconstructed
image to be blurred as shown in Fig. lO(a), where
range tracking and Doppler tracking has been
applied.
From a time-varying spectrum point of view,
the uncompensated phase error causes the Doppler
spectrum to be time-varying. If we deal with the
time-varying Doppler spectrum using the Fourier
transform, the image becomes blurred. By replacing
the Fourier transform with the time-frequency
transform, the single Fourier image frame becomes
a sequence of time-frequency image frames. The joint
time-frequency transform resolves the single image
frame into a stack of its temporal frame elements.
Each of them represents a full range-Doppler image
at a particular time instant. Fig. 10(b) shows the image
frame 7 from the stack of frames, and Fig. 11 shows
8 frames (frame 1 to frame 8) extracted from the
sequence of 16 time-frequency image frames. We can
the time-varying spectrum can be represented very
well and, therefore, the smeared Fourier image is
resolved into a sequence of time-varying images,
which not only have superior resolution, but also
shows the Doppler change and range walk in time.
B. Single Target with Rotational Motion
In this simulation, a 2-D model of an aircraft
(MIG-25) is used, and the aircraft has a fast rotational
motion with a rotation rate of lO"/s. In each burst, a
total of 64 SFs are used with a stepping frequency of
8 MHz. A total of 512 samples of the time history
series are taken to reconstruct the image of the
aircraft.
Range
(b)
495
 Frame no 1 Frame no 2 Frame no 3 Frame no 4

L1
a
0
Frame no 5 Frame no 6 Frame no 7 Frame no 8

Range

Fig. 11. Sequence of image frames (from frame 1 to frame 8) of simulated aircraft by using joint time-frequency transform

Doppler

(a)
Fig. 12. Images of simulated MIG-25 by using (a) Fourier transform and (b) time-frequency transform (frame 7).

Assume that the translation motion of a target
can be perfectly compensated. However, due to
the fast rotation of the target, even after motion
compensation, the uncompensated phase error is still
large. Therefore, the reconstructed image by using
the Fourier transform is still blurred as shown in
Fig. 12(a).
Usually, when a target has a fast rotational motion,
polar reformatting is required, which eliminates the
drifts of individual scatterers through their range
cells, such that the Fourier transform can be used
properly. However, to perform polar reformatting,
some initial kinematic parameters are required. The
data resampling and polar-to-rectangular reformation
also increases the computational complexity of the
image reconstruction.
By using the time-frequency processing, since each
scatterer has its own range and Doppler frequency
shift at each time instant, without knowing the
initial kinematic parameters and resampling the
data, a blurred Fourier image becomes a sequence
of time-frequency image frames. Fig. 12(b) shows
the image frame 7 from the sequence of 16 frames
reconstructed by the time-frequency transform. We
can see that the blurred image due to fast rotating can
be refocused without polar reformatting.
C. Two Targets with Circular Motion
If a number of targets are within the same antenna
beam, close together in range, and moving with
different velocities or in different directions, the
returned signals from these targets are overlapped
in time. By simply applying a conventional motion
compensation algorithm, which is designed for single
moving target, the multiple moving targets cannot be
resolved, and each individual target cannot be clearly
imaged.
The returned signal from multiple targets can be
expressed as the summation of the returned signals
from individual targets:
(43)

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 -
l6O0
1500
nx no.1
cenier 1 -20
-30

$1400.
1300
>
1200
I I O O ~ ~ ~ ~ ; ~+center2
io00
~, 1 201
30
.i .
1200 1400 1600 1800 -20 0 20
X (meter) (meter)

0.5 r %,-'

-0.5
-50 0 50
'
-0.5
-50 0 50
Range (meter) Range (meter)

(C) (d)
Fig. 13. Radar imag*ug of two moving targets. (a) Trajectories of the two targets. (b) Aircraft model (B-727). (c) Radar image using
Fourier transform. (d) Radar image using time-frequency transform.

where p,(x,y) is thje reflectivity function of the target Fig. 13(a) illustrates the trajectories of two
k . The associated ciomponents of its spatial frequencies simulated targets, each of them having a circular
are fk, and fky. I motion around a center point. The radar is located
Due to differenit radial velocities of these targets, at ( X = 0, Y = 0). The two targets start their circular
each individual tarBet has its own Doppler history motion from an initial point at (X = 1600 m, Y =
different from oth6rs. In this case, the time-frequency 1600 m). Target 1 has a circular motion around a
transform may be ptilized for imaging of multiple center at ( X = 1600 m, Y = 1550 m) with a rotation
moving targets. %Filar to (4), the Doppler frequency rate 0.02 rad/s or 1.15"/s. Target 2 has a rotation
shift associated with the target k can be derived as rate of 0.03 rad/s or 1.72"/s around a center at ( X =
I
1600 m, Y = 1100 m). Fig. 13(c) shows th9''radar
image of the two moving targets with cordkntional
motion compensation and the Fourier transform. As a
- y ( ~ , c o s e ,-
~ R,2tsir1~~,)1. conventional approach, after range tracking a Doppler
centroid algorithm may be used for Doppler tracking.
(44) Thus, the phase correction function is based on a
Even if vRAand R,, are constant, the Doppler centroid frequency and, therefore, it cannot make a
frequency shift is ;till time-varying, or its time clear image for either of the targets.
I
derivative is However, in this case, the Doppler histories of the
two targets are different due to the different rotation
(45) rates. This difference provides a way to resolving
multiple targets in the time-frequency domain. After
where QoA is the iriitial rotation angle of the target k . range tracking and placing the mass center at the
When two targets ahave different rotation rates, their center of the range extent, the time history series
Doppler frequenvy shifts and their Doppler changing at the center range cell can be used as a reference.
rates are different Even if the returned signals from By applying a joint time-frequency transform to the
the two targets art overlapped in time, they can still reference, a phase correction function corresponding
F
be separated in teirms of their Doppler shifts and their to one target can be extracted and applied to the time
Doppler changing rates. histories of all the range cells. Thus, the Doppler
Conventional 1 otion compensation algorithms spectrum corresponding to that target becomes
basically perform range tracking and Doppler
~
a constant. Hence, the Fourier transform can be
tracking. In cases ;of multiple moving targets, the adequately applied to reconstruct the image of that
phase compensatibn by Doppler tracking cannot target. But, images of other targets may be blurred
correct phase errors for all targets simultaneously. The because their phase errors may not be correctly
phase correction fhnction obtained by the conventional compensated. By utilizing only one phase correction
Doppler tracking algorithm may compensate the phase function at a time, multiple targets may be separately
error for one target but induce phase errors for others. imaged one at a time.

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 When targets are moving smoothly, the
conventional time-frequency approach may generate
satisfactory images of multiple targets, especially for
point targets. However, for extended targets that are
rotating or maneuvering, there is no a simple phase
correction function for the rotating or maneuvering
extended target. Thus, the conventional time-frequencY
approach is not capable of imaging of multiple
extended rotating or maneuvering targets.
As we mentioned in Section I, these conventional
time-frequency approaches utilize a time-frequency
transform (such as STFT or WVD) to compute the
time-varying Doppler spectrum and, hence, the phase
correction function. However, the means for image
reconstruction is still the Fourier transform. When
multiple targets have different rotational as well as
translational motion, each individual scatterer of
the target has its own motion and rotation different
from others. Therefore, each scatterer of the same
target has its own Doppler history. The phase
compensation made by the conventional time-
frequency approach cannot remove all the Doppler
drifts from all the scatterers. Therefore, images of
multiple targets may not clearly show the individual
targets.
However, when we utilize the time-frequency
transform as the means of image reconstruction,
multiple extended targets with complex motion
may be clearly imaged. Unlike the conventional
time-frequency approaches which utilizes only
one phase correct function and separately
images one target at a time, our time-frequency
image reconstruction can image multiple targets
simultaneously. Multiple targets can be identified
from a sequence of temporal time-frequency image
frames. With the time-frequency imaging approach,
the target can be either a point target or an extended
target; and the motion can be either translational
and rotational motion, or maneuvering. Fig. 13(d)
shows the two aircraft imaged by our time-frequency
imaging approach. As a reference, the simulated
aircraft model is shown in Fig. 13(b).
V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we examined the relationship
between target motion and time-varying spectrum in
radar imaging and had an insight into the blurring
of radar images. We discussed the restriction of the
Fourier transform for radar image reconstruction
and proposed a time-frequency imaging approach to
replace the Fourier transform.
To represent time-varying spectra, a high
resolution time-frequency transform is desirable.
We compared the time-frequency concentration
and the instantaneous frequency of the commonly
used time-frequency transform (the STFT and the
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WVD) and the TFDS. We use the TFDS for our
time-frequency radar imaging approach.
Simulated targets were used to demonstrate the
capability of the time-frequency approach to radar
imaging of moving targets. The result clearly shows
that the joint time-frequency transform can be used
to replace the Fourier transform as a means of radar
image reconstruction without suffering image blurring.
Therefore, the restriction of the Fourier transform
can be lifted, and constant Doppler frequency shifts
and complicated motion compensation algorithms for
individual scatterers are no longer needed for making
clear images of moving targets.
The time-frequency imaging approach can be used
for imaging of targets with either smooth motion or
abrupt maneuvering, and for imaging of either a single
target or multiple targets.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We are grateful to William Miceli of ONR for
support and helpful discussions. We would also like
to express our thanks to Dave Kerr and Amy O’brien
of Naval Research Laboratory for their reviewing and
helpful comments.
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Victor C. Chen received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from

Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH. Since 1990 he has been
with the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC, working on signal and
image processing, automatic target recognition, moving target detection and
time-frequencykime-scale applications to signal analysis and radar imaging
systems. From 1982 to 1990, he was with Picker International, Technicare
Corporation, and Vitro Corporation as a staff scientist and senior engineer,
working on medical imaging systems, magnetic resonance image processing,
neural networks, visual motion perception, and wavelet transforms. Before 1980,
he was a chief engineer in the Institute of Electronics, the Academy of Sciences
of China, working on signal detection and estimation, statistical communication
theory, and radar tracking systems.
Dr. Chen's publications include a book, chapters in books, and more than 60
papers in journals and proceedings.

Shie Qian is a Senior Research Scientist at National Instruments Corp., Austin,

TX. His research interests include methods and applications of time-frequency
and time-scale analysis.
He is the leading author of Joint Time-Frequency Analysis (Prentince-Hall,
1996).

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