A SAR Target Recognition Strategy Guided by Electromagnetic Scattering Feature

SAR target Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) is indispensable in SAR image interpretation. Recently, deep learning technology has been widely used in SAR target recognition tasks. Most networks achieve incremental improvements in target recognition by modifying their structures to extract visual features of targets. However, due to the unique imaging mechanism, relying solely on visual features often leads to the loss of target information. In contrast, the ASC model, which captures the electromagnetic scattering characteristics of the target, plays a crucial role in target recognition tasks. Unfortunately, traditional parameter estimation methods for extracting the ASC model are computationally expensive and time-consuming, making them impractical for real-world applications. To address these issues, we propose a novel target recognition method based on electromagnetic scattering features in this paper. First, a lightweight network-based feature extraction module is designed. Then, the target ASC image is used as the ground truth for guidance, with image intensity and target structure serving as the loss functions during training. Finally, an ASC model-guided feature fusion network is designed, utilizing the fused features for target recognition. On the MSTAR dataset, a visual assessment experiment demonstrated that the proposed feature extraction module effectively extracts electromagnetic scattering features under various operating conditions. Subsequently, in downstream classification tasks, the inclusion of the proposed module resulted in improved accuracy compared to other networks. Additionally, a visualization analysis of the classification network showed that, under the guidance of electromagnetic scattering features, the network achieved good interpretability.