An Interferometric Moving Target Indicator radar can be used to measure the tangential velocity component of a moving target. Multiple baselines, along with the conventional radial velocity measurement, allow estimating the true 3-D velocity vector of a target.
International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS)
Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (IFSAR) extends the two-dimensional imaging capability of traditional synthetic aperture radar to three-dimensions by using an aperture in the elevation plane to estimate the 3-D structure of the target. The operation of this additional aperture can be viewed from a null-steering point of view rather than the traditional phase determination point of view. Knowing that IFSAR can be viewed from the null-steering perspective allows us to take advantage of the mathematical foundation developed for null-steering arrays. In addition, in some problems of interest in IFSAR the null-steering perspective provides better intuition and suggests alternative solutions. One example is the problem of estimating building height where layover is present.
Interferometric SAR (IFSAR) can be shown to be a special case of 3-D SAR image formation. In fact, traditional IFSAR processing results in the equivalent of merely a super-resolved, under-sampled, 3-D SAR image. However, when approached as a 3-D SAR problem, a number of IFSAR properties and anomalies are easily explained. For example, IFSAR decorrelation with height is merely ordinary migration in 3-D SAR. Consequently, treating IFSAR as a 3-D SAR problem allows insight and development of proper motion compensation techniques and image formation operations to facilitate optimal height estimation. Furthermore, multiple antenna phase centers and baselines are easily incorporated into this formulation, providing essentially a sparse array in the elevation dimension. This paper shows the Polar Format image formation algorithm extended to 3 dimensions, and then proceeds to apply it to the IFSAR collection geometry. This suggests a more optimal reordering of the traditional IFSAR processing steps.