A novel spaceborne ISAR imaging approach for space target with high-order translational motion compensation and spatial variant MTRC correction

For spaceborne ISAR imaging of space targets, due to the high-speed relative motion between the radar and targets, both the translational and rotational motion exhibit the high-order characteristics. Conventional translational motion compensation (TMC) methods are ineffective in handling such high-order translational motion. Moreover, the migration through resolution cell (MTRC) stems from the presence of the high-order spatial variant phase of the echo signal, resulting in severe defocusing of ISAR images. In this paper, a novel spaceborne ISAR imaging approach for space targets is proposed, which incorporates the high-order TMC and the high-order MTRC correction. First, the slant range model for spaceborne ISAR imaging is derived as a third-order polynomial form. Based on this model, a modified high-order TMC method is proposed, which utilizes the minimum entropy method combined with the Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno (BFGS) algorithm. The proposed method leverages orbital model information to obtain the initial TMC coefficients, enabling TMC to be completed more accurately and effectively. Then, a modified polynomial keystone transform (PKT) is proposed to correct the high-order MTRC. The PKT-based method effectively addresses both the high-order and first-order MTRC corrections simultaneously. Finally, a spaceborne ISAR imaging approach is proposed to obtain well-focused ISAR images. Simulated and real data results validate the analysis of the spaceborne ISAR imaging model and demonstrate the effectiveness of the spaceborne imaging approach for space targets proposed in this paper.