Detection of delayed target response in SAR

Abstract Delayed target response in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging can be obscured by the range-delay ambiguity and speckle. To analyze the range-delay ambiguity, one extends the standard SAR formulation and allows both the target reflectivity and the image to depend not only on the coordinates, but also on the response delay. However, this still leaves the speckle unaccounted for. Yet speckle is commonly found in SAR images of extended targets, and a statistical approach is usually employed to describe it. We have developed a simple model of a delayed scatterer by modifying the random function that describes a homogeneous extended scatterer. Our model allows us to obtain a relation between the deterministic parameters of the target model and statistical moments of the SAR image. We assume a regular shape of the antenna trajectory, and our model targets are localized in at least one space-time coordinate; this permits analytical formulation for statistical moments of the image. The problem of reconstruction of coordinate-delay reflectivity function is reduced to that of discrimination between instantaneous and delayed scatterers; for the latter problem, the maximum likelihood based image processing procedure has been developed. We perform Monte-Carlo simulation and evaluate performance of the classification procedure for a simple dependence of scatterer reflectivity on the delay time.