Simulation of ISAR Imaging for a Missile

Abstract

In this paper, physical optical (PO) method is introduced and applied to calculate the echo data from a missile illuminated by plane waves with arbitrary aspects and different frequencies for inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging. The missile is approximated by component disassembly method (CMD) and concept of scattering matrix is introduced in order to simplify complexity of the numerical calculation. Generated images of several incidence angles are analyzed by signal processing theory and can precisely represent the mirror scattering region and the rotation of the target. The results of the simulation indicate that PO method is simple and effective to calculate the radar echo of a missile for ISAR imaging.