A frequency domain radar interferometric imaging (FII) technique based on high-resolution methods

In the present work, we propose a frequency-domain interferometric imaging (FII) technique for a better knowledge of the vertical distribution of the atmospheric scatterers detected by MST radars. This is an extension of the dual frequency-domain interferometry (FDI) technique to multiple Frequencie s. Its objective is to reduce the ambiguity (resulting from the use of only two adjacent frequencies), inherent with the FDI technique. Different meth ods, commonly used in antenna array processing, are first described within the context of application to the FII technique. These methods are the Four ier-based imaging, the Capon's and the singular value decomposition method used with the MUSIC algorithm. Some preliminary simulations and tests perfo rmed on data collected with the middle and upper atmosphere (MU) radar (Shi garaki, Japan) are also presented. This work is a first step in the develop ments of the FII technique which seems to be very promising. (C) 2001 Elsev ier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.