For the distributed targets arising in most synthetic aperture radar (SAR)
images, it is the integrated sidelobe: (ISL) energy rather than thr peak si
delobe level (PSL) that governs the performance of the pulse compression pr
ocessing. A sidelobe cancellation technique is suggested which reduces the
ISL energy by eliminating a significant portion of the sidelobe pattern of
the pulse compression output, while the PSL is presented at the optimal Bar
ker-code level. The efficiency of this ISL reduction is proportional to the
signal code length.