Disclosure of Invention
The invention aims to provide an imaging method for improving the signal-to-noise ratio of a high-speed SAR platform based on continuous pulse coding aiming at the defects in the prior art so as to equivalently improve the azimuth sampling rate, eliminate the azimuth spectrum aliasing of echoes and improve the imaging effect.
The technical idea of the invention is as follows: the method comprises the steps of continuously transmitting pulse train signals by taking the length of a pulse train as a period, selecting receiving windows which are periodically arranged to solve aliasing echoes, taking complete echo signals recovered by each group as one-time slow sampling echoes of a radar, and accurately imaging a target while obtaining a high signal-to-noise ratio by a high-speed SAR platform.
According to the above thought, the implementation steps of the invention include the following:
(1) designing a pulse train signal, and repeatedly transmitting the pulse train signal, wherein the repetition period is the width of the pulse train signal, each pulse train signal comprises a plurality of single pulse signals, and gaps among the single pulse signals are receiving windows;
(2) simulating SAR echo signals according to the transmitted pulse train signals to obtain original aliasing echo signals;
(3) constructing a multi-element linear equation set according to the form of the transmitted pulse train signal: where L is an observation matrix of each receive window, X is a set of all complete echoes that need to be solved, and R is an aliased echo signal of each receive window;
(4) selecting a plurality of sub-equation sets with the same equation quantity from the multi-element linear equation set established in the step (3) according to the determined step length, and solving the set X of all complete echoes to obtain an echo signal after aliasing resolution;
(5) uniformly grouping and superposing the echo signals after unmixing and superposition in the same group, and carrying out SAR imaging on the superposed echo signals according to equivalent pulse repetition frequency PRF;
compared with the prior art, the invention has the following advantages:
1. equivalently improving the azimuth sampling rate, eliminating the azimuth spectrum aliasing of the echo, and being suitable for a high-speed platform
In the prior art, in order to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of a radar image, a series of single pulse coding signals are adopted, and a next pulse train can be transmitted only after the echo of the last sub-pulse in the current pulse train is received, namely the transmitting frequency of the pulse train cannot be too large, so that for a high-speed platform, the azimuth frequency spectrum of the high-speed platform is subjected to aliasing due to undersampling, and accurate imaging cannot be performed;
the invention adopts a continuous pulse coding method, the pulse train repetition period is the time width of the pulse train, namely, the next pulse train is transmitted after the echo of the last sub-pulse in the current pulse train is received; in addition, the invention equivalently converts a plurality of groups of complete echoes calculated in a pulse train repetition period into sampling echoes of the radar at different azimuth moments, equivalently improves the radar azimuth sampling frequency, simultaneously ensures the signal-to-noise ratio requirement of the SAR image, eliminates azimuth spectrum aliasing caused by undersampling, improves the SAR imaging effect, and can be applied to a high-speed platform.
2. High adaptability
Because the invention designs the pulse train signal composed of S, 0 and-S, for the platforms with different speeds, a plurality of groups of echoes calculated in a pulse train repetition period can be equivalent to the sampling echoes of the radar at different azimuth moments, and partial echoes can be subjected to coherent superposition to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of one-dimensional distance direction, so that the invention has strong adaptability, and can be applied to not only high-speed platforms but also low-speed platforms.
Detailed Description
The following describes in detail specific embodiments and effects of the present invention with reference to the drawings.
Referring to fig. 1, the implementation steps of this example are as follows:
step 1, designing a pulse train signal and repeatedly transmitting the pulse train signal.
The pulse train signal designed by the embodiment is composed of S, 0 and S, wherein S is time width TPThe interval of the chirp signal is fixed to TPOr 2TPI.e. one or two receive windows; s is a phase which adds pi to S, 0 represents a time width TPThe receive window of (1). The pulse train signal has a plurality of groups of permutation and combination forms, the length is designed according to requirements, fig. 2 shows an example of the pulse train signal, and the pulse train signal is represented as follows: S0S0S00S00-S0-S0S00S00S 0S;
the radar repeatedly transmits the pulse train signal to the target with the time width of the pulse train as a period.
And 2, receiving the echo signal of the target scene by the radar.
Because the interval time of the single pulses in the transmitted pulse train signal is very short, the echo corresponding to each single pulse signal is subjected to aliasing, and because the radar adopts a single-channel mode, a target echo cannot be received when the signal is transmitted, part of the echo is shielded by the transmitted single pulse signal, so that the echo is not complete, and the echo signal received by the radar is an incomplete and aliased signal, as shown in fig. 3;
because the imaging processing cannot be directly performed by using the echo in the receiving window due to the imperfection and aliasing of the echo, the complete echo information corresponding to the monopulse needs to be recovered from the aliasing echo of each receiving window.
And 3, constructing a multi-element linear equation set according to the form of the transmitted pulse train signal.
(3a) Let X be the set of all complete echoes to be solved, and because the pitch angle of the beam is limited and the scene width of radar illumination is limited, the length of the scene echo corresponding to a single pulse is limited, i.e. the duration of the scene echo corresponding to a single pulse after reception is limited from the beginning is denoted as T, and N is defined as T/TPIs upwardly-directed integer value of, wherein TPFor the time width of the chirp signal, X is given by TPIs a unit, is divided into N segments and is marked as X ═ X1,X2...Xn...XN]TAs shown in FIG. 4, wherein XnFor the nth echo, N is equal to [1, N ]];
(3b) The aliased echo signal of each receive window is denoted as R ═ R1,R2...Rm...RM]T,RmFor the aliased echo signal of the mth receive window, M ∈ [1, M]M is the total number of receiving windows, and for the signal example in step 1, M is 13 × nan, and nan is the number of pulse train signals transmitted to the radar in the azimuth direction;
(3c) and (3) obtaining an observation matrix L according to the echo length and the transmitted pulse train signal form:
wherein lmnRepresents whether the nth segment of echo X exists in the mth receiving windownIf present, according to XnTaking l as positive and negative of corresponding transmitted monopulsemnIs 1 or-1, if no echo X exists in the mth receiving windownThen l ismnThe value is 0, M is belonged to [1, M],n∈[1,N];
(3d) And constructing a linear equation system Y according to the aliasing echo signals R and the observation matrix L of each receiving window:
constructing a linear equation set Y to be expressed as LX-R without considering noise, solving the equation set to obtain a complete echo set X without noise,
when considering noise, a system of linear equations is constructed as: solving the equation set to obtain a complete echo set X under the condition of noise, and simultaneously obtaining the change condition of the noise so as to measure the improvement of the signal-to-noise ratio of the radar;
and 4, resolving a linear equation set of the sub-lines to obtain a complete target echo corresponding to the single pulse signal.
Because the interval of the pulses in each group in the pulse train signal is very small and is in the microsecond level, the echo signals of each sub-pulse in one pulse train repetition period can be assumed to be approximately the same, and the assumption provides possibility for resolving the complete scene echo corresponding to a single pulse from the aliasing echo;
(4a) selecting Q continuous equations from the linear equation set Y, forming a sub-linear equation set lx belonging to Y, which is recorded as Y, and solving x to obtain: x ═ lTl)-1lTr, where Q > ═ N, L is a submatrix extracted row-wise for L, the rank of L is equal to or greater than N, i.e. LTl is a reversible matrix, X is a certain complete echo, X belongs to X, and R is a subvector of R;
(4b) selecting K as a step length, using a sub-linear equation set Y as a reference, sequentially selecting Q continuous equations in the linear equation set Y to form other sub-linear equation sets until all the equations in Y are selected, solving X corresponding to each equation set, and further obtaining a complete echo set X after de-aliasing1Then x, i.e. the radar equivalent pulse repetition frequency PRF is 1/T1. In the selection of T1The PRF is required to be greater than the minimum azimuth sampling rate required by radar imaging.
And 5, carrying out SAR imaging processing on all the recovered complete echoes.
(5a) Arranging the solved complete echoes in sequence according to the corresponding receiving windows;
(5b) and uniformly grouping the arrayed echoes to enable each group to contain num complete echoes, and then performing coherent superposition on the num complete echoes in the same group. The step (4b) easily deduces that the equivalent pulse repetition frequency PRF after the packet superposition is 1/(num × T)1);
Because the echo in the group is coherent superposition and the noise is incoherent superposition, theoretically, the more the number of the superposed echoes is, the more the signal-to-noise ratio is improved, but as can be known from an equivalent pulse repetition frequency formula, the more the number of the superposed echoes is, the lower the equivalent azimuth sampling rate of the radar is, the problem of spectrum aliasing caused by undersampling of the echo obtained by the high-speed platform radar after solving can be caused, and accurate SAR imaging cannot be performed, so that the number of the echo in the group cannot be too large in the actual imaging process, and the number num of the echo in the group needs to be flexibly selected under the condition of meeting the requirements.
The technical effects of the invention are further explained by simulation experiments as follows:
1. simulation conditions
Creating a target model with 3 points, and performing a simulation test on a computer by using MATLAB R2018b software, wherein SAR system simulation parameters are shown in tables 1, 2 and 3:
TABLE 1 SAR System simulation parameters 1
TABLE 2 SAR System simulation parameters 2
TABLE 3 SAR System simulation parameters 3
2. Emulated content
Simulation 1, simulating the azimuth spectrum of the echo by using the radar pulse coding theory and the applied method in the background art under the SAR system simulation parameters of table 1, and the result is shown in fig. 5.
Simulation 2, under the SAR system simulation parameters of table 1, the method of the present invention is used to simulate the azimuth spectrum of the echo, and the result is shown in fig. 6.
Simulation 3, under the SAR system simulation parameters of table 2, performing conventional single pulse imaging on the target, wherein the pulse repetition frequency is the equivalent pulse repetition frequency of the present invention that employs the parameters of table 3 for imaging, and the imaging result is shown in fig. 7.
Simulation 4, in the SAR system simulation parameters in table 3, the target is imaged by using the method of the present invention, and the imaging result is shown in fig. 8.
3. Analysis of simulation results
Comparing fig. 5 and fig. 6, it can be seen that when the method of the radar pulse coding theory and application in the background art is applied to a high-speed platform, the azimuth spectrum of the echo is aliased and cannot be used for SAR imaging, whereas when the method of the present invention is applied to a high-speed platform, the azimuth spectrum of the echo is not aliased and can be used for SAR imaging.
Comparing the imaging result graphs of fig. 7 and fig. 8, it can be seen that the image noise in fig. 8 is significantly reduced, and the imaging quality is significantly better than that in fig. 7, which shows that the present invention not only effectively improves the signal-to-noise ratio of the SAR image, but also solves the imaging problem of the high-speed SAR platform.