Optimal Time Selection Strategy Based on Imaging Projection Plane for Bistatic Sar Ship Target Imaging

In high sea states, ship targets often exhibit intense and complex rotational movements due to sea waves, leading to defocused and time-varying imaging results for bistatic synthetic aperture radar (SAR). This paper introduces a novel strategy for selecting optimal imaging times of ship targets by analyzing image projection plane (IPP). Utilizing short-time Fourier transform (STFT) on target echoes, rotation parameters of the ship are estimated via differential evolution (DE) method, to determine IPP throughout the entire observation period, so that the optimal imaging moments can be selected. By comparison of image contrasts and entropies, the optimal imaging time lengths are also refined. Overall, this paper offers an optimal time section strategy ensuring clear views of ship targets, and simulation results verify its effectiveness.