Forward-looking imaging based on real beam scanning phased array radars

High resolution imaging under forward-looking condition is of great benefit to airplanes' safe landing or seekers' guidance with high precision. According to the principle of phased array radar (PAR), the echo model during the scanning process is established firstly. Using the model, some former methods such as multi-channel deconvolution are analyzed comprehensively, and the reason why these are ineffective is deduced. After that, a novel forward-looking imaging method based on compressive sensing is proposed for scanning PAR using the fact that dominant scatters are sparse or compressive in an interesting area. In the method, high angle resolution is achieved by the compressive sensing after pulse compression along the slant range which is aimed to obtain high range resolution. Results of simulations proves the effectiveness of the method, and its performance is analyzed. Although the imaging is accomplished using PAR, the method is also effective for mechanical scanning radars.