Radar Forward-Looking Imaging Based on Chirp Beam Scanning

Abstract

In this letter, a novel radar forward-looking imaging technique based on beam pattern modulation and beam scanning is presented. First, the chirp beam, which presents quadratic varying phases within the main lobe, is generated and scans as a chirp pulse propagating along the azimuth direction by differentially exciting each element of a uniform linear array (ULA). Second, the target distribution is successfully reconstructed using 2-D pulse compression, and a theoretical analysis of the azimuth resolution is conducted. Finally, the sparse representation (SR) technique is employed to enhance the imaging performance. Simulation and experimental results validate the effectiveness and potential of the proposed method for acquiring high-resolution forward-looking images. This work holds promise for advancing the development of radar forward-looking methods and systems.