SAR sidelobe apodization using parametric windows

SAR/ISAR image processing involves a two-dimensional Fourier transform that may produce significant high intensity sidelobes which obscure low intensity scatterers in the image. Spatially variant sidelobe apodization is a technique that reduces sidelobe levels in a final Fourier image while maintaining the image resolution that would be obtained using the rectangular window. In this paper, a generalization of this technique based on the use of different parametric windows is proposed. Low sidelobe levels are obtained at the expense of increasing the complexity of the sidelobe apodization algorithm. Similar resolution and lower sidelobe levels were obtained using a one-dimensional example when compared to the spatially variant apodization technique. The method was also tested and results are shown when using this new sidelobe apodization technique with a two dimensional ISAR image.