Radar Imaging of Airborne Targets

Radar-based imaging of aircraft targets is a topic that continues to attract a lot of attention -- particularly since these imaging methods have been recognized to be the foundation of any successful all-weather non-cooperative target identification technique. The traditional texts in this area are aimed at an audience that has been trained to look at the problem from a radar engineering point of view. Consequently, the basic issues associated with model error and image interpretation are usually not addressed in any substantive fashion. Moreover, applied mathematicians frequently find it difficult to read the radar engineering literature because it is jargonladen and device specific. This, effectively, means that the skills that are most applicable to the problem`s solution are rarely applied. This book has been written as a primer for physicists and applied mathematicians who are interested in understanding the subject and its current mathematical research issues. The book presents the issues and techniques associated with radar imaging from a mathematical point of view rather than from an instrumentation perspective. This is accomplished by concentrating on the scattering issues, the inverse scattering problem, and the approximations that are usually made by practical algorithm developers. The author also explains the consequences of these approximations to the resultant radar image and its interpretation, and examines methods for reducing model-based error. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.