Target imaging using a synthesized bistatic radar

The problem of radar imaging when the imaging system is composed of a group of phased arrays with arbitrary radiation patterns and coordinates (multistatic configuration) is discussed. Each phased array has a finite aperture and is used for transmitting and receiving functions, or both. A receiving phased array can make a synchronous or asynchronous detection of the backscattered signal. The approach is to exploit the arrays' various radiation patterns to integrate the recorded backscattered signal and relate it to the target under study. Inverse scattering principles developed for a bistatic imaging system with a plane wave radiation pattern are adopted for a set of phased arrays with arbitrary radiation patterns. For this purpose, a linear processing of the available radiation patterns is used to synthesize the target's backscattered signals for a limited number of bistatic geometries. Also, it is shown that these array processing principles can be utilized to formulate a system model and inversion for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) that incorporates wavefront curvature.