Detecting Vibrating Targets in Fine Resolution SAR Imagery

Detecting vibrating features within a SAR image is a useful task of relevance to both the military and humanitarian relief efforts. Unfortunately a vibrating target manifests its reflected energy into 'paired echoes' which are difficult to detect. In this paper, we use a new sensor called Bright Spark to image an operating generator. To characterise the expected signatures a new SAR simulator called SARCASTIC is used to simulate the phase history of the data collection against a computer aided design (CAD) model of a generator. The nature of the simulated signature is discussed. Finally a method to detect the operating status of the generator is provided together with experimental results showing that it is possible to detect a vibrating generator with a fine resolution SAR system.