Complex ISAR imaging of maneuvering targets via the Capon estimator

An inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) can be used to produce high-resolution images of moving targets of interest by utilizing the relative motion between the target and the radar and by transmitting signals with large bandwidth. Most ISAR imaging algorithms are based on the range-Doppler processing, which implies that the Doppler shifts remain constant during the coherent integration time. For maneuvering targets, the Doppler shifts are time varying. In this case, the algorithms will produce blurred images. We present herein an adaptive Capon (1969) spectral estimation algorithm for the complex ISAR image formation of maneuvering targets. It is an efficient recursive implementation of the well-known Capon complex spectral estimation algorithm by using FFT and simple matrix operations.