Comparison of two‐step and one‐step motion compensation algorithms for airborne synthetic aperture radar

Abstract

Airborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image quality considerably degrades because of motion errors. High‐precision motion compensation (MOCO) is necessary in an advanced SAR data processing scheme. In the case of ultra‐high resolution, the conventional two‐step MOCO algorithm introduces significant range cell migration correction (RCMC) error which causes a loss to resolution. Another method named one‐step MOCO can avoid RCMC error, improving image quality obviously. Meanwhile, one‐step MOCO can well integrate with the standard Omega‐K algorithm succinctly. A comparison of the two MOCO algorithms is demonstrated by analysing the RCMC error. Point targets simulation has validated the proposed research.