Configuration Design of Bistatic Forward-Looking SAR Driven by Spatial Resolution Metrics

Due to the high degree of freedom of bistatic synthetic aperture radar (SAR), how to design a suitable configuration to achieve forward-looking high-quality imaging is a crucial issue. Since the spatial resolution is the most critical performance metric, the configuration design of bistatic forward-looking SAR (BFSAR) driven by spatial resolution metrics is discussed in this letter. First, based on the general geometry configuration and generalized ambiguity function (GAF), the analytical expression of the ellipse resolution for BFSAR is derived. Then, a novel measure for spatial resolution is developed by considering both the orthogonality and balance. Finally, with the prior information of the transmitting platform, the optimal configuration of the forward-looking receiver is established by solving an optimization problem of the spatial resolution with genetic algorithm, and simulation results are illustrated to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.