Mitigation of artifacts in multistatic and passive radar imaging using microlocal analysis

Abstract In the analysis of many synthetic aperture radar experiments the possibility of passive background signals being recorded simultaneously and corrupting the image is often overlooked. Our work addresses this by considering the multistatic experiment where two stationary emitters are ‘always on’ so there is ‘crosstalk’ between their signals. The model for the radar data is given by a Fourier integral operator, and we assume that the data cannot be separated into contributions from individual emitters. Using techniques of microlocal analysis, we show that ‘crosstalk’ between emitters leads to artifacts in the image and we determine their locations relative to the scatterers that produced the data. To combat the harmful effects of crosstalk, we develop methods that allow us to create an image of a region of interest (ROI) that is free from such artifacts. The first method makes use of a carefully designed data acquisition geometry to localise artifacts away from a ROI, and the second is an image processing technique that displaces artifacts away from a ROI. These methods are verified via numerical implementation in MATLAB. The analysis carried out here is valuable in bistatic and multistatic radar experiments, where an unwanted, passive source is also being detected, as well as in passive imaging, where one wishes to produce a high-quality image purely from uncontrolled sources of illumination.