LAUSR

Airborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) with an imaging resolution of up to 0.03 m is developed. However, the imaging process suffers from motion errors with 2-D spatial-variant characteristics that invalidate approximations suitable for motion compensation (MOCO) in a submeter resolution SAR system. To estimate and compensate for 2-D spatial-variant motion error (2-D SVME), we propose a novel two-stage processing framework for the ultrahigh-resolution microwave photonic (UHR MWP) airborne SAR imaging. In the first stage, the two-step MOCO compensates for the spatial-invariant and range-variant motion errors. Range downsampling and azimuth windowing are adopted to increase the robustness of the method. Afterward, the coupling of the 2-D SVME is greatly decreased, and a coarse-focused image is obtained. In stage two, an extended autofocusing method in the 2-D wavenumber domain based on the extended range migration algorithm (ERMA) compensates for the azimuth-variant motion errors and nonsystematic range cell migration (NsRCM) for 2-D wide-swath stripmap SAR data. After the ERMA and obtaining the coarse-focused image, the analytical structure of the residual 2-D phase error in the wavenumber domain is revealed. A nonlinear scaling equation is developed, thus relating the 1-D azimuth phase error to the 2-D phase error correction. The Ku-band stripmap UHR MWP (0.03 m) airborne SAR data are analyzed to verify the necessity and effectiveness of the proposed framework. A well-focused stripmap SAR image is obtained.