An Imaging Method for Marine Targets in Corner Reflector Jamming Scenario Based on Time–Frequency Analysis and Modified Clean Technique

In the corner reflector jamming scenario, the ship target and the corner reflector array have different degrees of defocusing in the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image due to their complex motions, which is unfavorable to the subsequent target recognition. In this manuscript, we propose an imaging method for marine targets based on time–frequency analysis with the modified Clean technique. Firstly, the motion models of the ship target and the corner reflector array are established, and the characteristics of their Doppler parameter distribution are analyzed. Then, the Chirp Rate–Quadratic Chirp Rate Distribution (CR-QCRD) algorithm is utilized to estimate the Doppler parameters. To address the challenges posed by the aggregated scattering points of the ship target and the overlapping Doppler histories of the corner reflector array, the Clean technique is modified by short-time Fourier transform (STFT) filtering and amplitude–phase distortion correction using fractional Fourier transform (FrFT) filtering. This modification aims to improve the accuracy and efficiency of extracting scattering point components. Thirdly, in response to the poor universality of the traditional Clean iterative termination condition, the kurtosis of the residual signal spectrum amplitude is adopted as the new iterative termination condition. Compared with the existing imaging methods, the proposed method can adapt to the different Doppler distribution characteristics of the ship target and the corner reflector array, thus realizing better robustness in obtaining a well-focused target image. Finally, simulation experiments verify the effectiveness of the algorithm.