On radar target shape estimation using algorithms for reconstruction from projections

Abstract

In radar identification of perfectly conducting targets, a need arises to determine a convex body from its cross-sectional areas normal to the lines of sight for a number of view angles. An approach, based on the theory of the Radon transform is used here to show that this problem is equivalent to the problem of image reconstruction from projections, which has been solved in many diverse disciplines. Two of the inversion algorithms developed in these fields are used to estimate object shapes from their cross-sectional areas, obtainable from the objects' far-field, backscattered ramp responses.