Three-dimensional ISAR imaging for space target via multi-pass orbit observation

A three-dimensional (3D) inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging method for space target using two-dimensional (2D) image sequence of multi-pass is proposed in this paper. The variation characteristics of the Radar Line of Sight (RLOS) and the 2D back projection (BP) imaging result of 3D target in the satellite based coordinate system are analyzed. CLENA algorithm is used to extract scatterers of 2D image, and then the scatterer association of multi-pass is accomplished according to analytical relationship between 2D imaging results and angular parameters of RLOS. The scatterers' 3D coordinates are reconstructed during the association process. Numerical simulations are used to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method.