Experimental studies on circular SAR imaging in clutter using angular correlation function technique

This paper describes a novel approach for three-dimensional (3-D) imaging i n a heavy-clutter environment. The proposed approach consists of two techni ques, The first calls for the use of a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) movin g in a circular orbit, whereas the second involves using angular correlatio n function (ACF) measurement for achieving clutter suppression. To demonstr ate the imaging and clutter suppression capabilities of this combined appro ach (circular-correlation SAR), microwave imaging experiments are conducted at X-band frequencies (7-13 GHz). It is found that in heavy-clutter enviro nments, this combined SAR approach outperforms conventional SAR, resulting in clearer images with enhanced target-to-clutter ratio.