Video SAR Image Fusion Using the Effective Reflection Coefficient

The video synthetic aperture radar (ViSAR), as a mode for sensing in an ever-wider synthetic aperture by sequentially forming SAR images on a series of contiguous or overlapping sub-apertures, has the promising capability to capture wide-angle scattering behavior of objects. In this paper, a novel method for ViSAR image fusion is proposed. First, the ViSAR imaging mode is analyzed and modeled. Based on this model, the reflection coefficient (RC) is then estimated and the significant RC is detected in each sub-aperture image. These detection results are then fused across sub-aperture images to detect scatterers in the area of interest. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated using a simulated scenario and compared with that of the conventional ViSAR image fusion method based on the generalized likelihood ratio test. Numerical results demonstrate the advantages of the proposed method in capturing the aspect-dependent scattering characteristics as well as the spatial structure of objects.