High‐speed target imaging for vortex electromagnetic wave radar

Abstract

Abstract Vortex electromagnetic waves (VEMWs) carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) are promising to benefit the higher degree of freedom for inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging on account of their helical wavefront. For high‐speed targets, the ‘stop and go’ hypothesis is no longer valid. Thus, the intrapulse movement of the target will cause the broadening and shift of the one‐dimensional range profile and the blurring of the OAM eigenvalues coupling azimuth. This contribution proposes a high‐speed target imaging method for the VEMW ISAR. First, an OAM‐based ISAR imaging model for high‐speed targets is derived and the echo characteristics are analysed. Subsequently, in order to effectively estimate the ratio of the echo to correct the imaging result, an estimation method that takes into account the calculation speed and accuracy is proposed. On this basis, the target velocity distribution obtained under multiple echoes is analysed to improve the accuracy of the results. Finally, the range profile and azimuthal profile are reconstructed. Compared with the existing vortex electromagnetic imaging algorithm, the proposed method can effectively eliminate the influence of high‐speed motion on the range and azimuth profile. This work provides suggestions for the development of EM vortex ISAR imaging technology.