A novel range grating lobe suppression method based on the stepped-frequency SAR image

The magnitude error and phase error (MEPE) in the transfer function of a stepped-frequency synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system results in a periodic MEPE in the synthesized wideband waveform, which induces the grating lobes in the high-resolution range profile. In this letter, a novel grating lobe suppression method based on the SAR image is proposed. In the paired-echo theory, a single sinusoidal term of the periodic MEPE in the frequency domain induces a pair of grating lobes in the time domain. Based on the magnitudes and phases of a strong scatterer and its grating lobes in the SAR image, the sinusoidal terms in the periodic MEPE can be estimated using the proposed method. By compensating for the estimated sinusoidal terms in the spectrum reconstruction, the corresponding grating lobes can be suppressed to the background level of the SAR image. The validity of the proposed method has been demonstrated using computer simulations and experiments based on real data.