Three‐dimensional ISAR imaging: a review

Abstract

Three‐dimensional (3D) inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging has been proven feasible by combining traditional ISAR imaging and interferometry. Such technique, namely inteferometric ISAR (In‐ISAR), allows for the main target scattering centres to be mapped into a 3D spatial domain as point clouds. Specifically, the use of an In‐ISAR system can overcome the main geometrical interpretation issues imposed by the monostatic acquisition geometry as the problem of cross‐range scaling and unknown image projection plane (IPP). However, some issues remain such as scatterer scintillation, shadowing effects, poor SNR etc., which limit the effectiveness of 3D imaging. A solution to such unsolved issues can be found in the use of multiple 3D views, which can be obtained exploiting either multi‐temporal or multi‐perspective configurations or a combination of both. This study aims to review the main concepts to produce multi‐view 3D ISAR images by using In‐ISAR systems also presenting real data collected with a multi‐static In‐ISAR system.