Adaptive Back-Projection Algorithm Based on Climb Method for Microwave Imaging

In this paper, we propose a microwave imaging technique that involves an adaptive back-projection (BP) algorithm based on a climb method. In general, the range migration algorithm (RMA) provides high computational efficiency and high accuracy for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging. However, RMA involves wavenumber domain interpolation, which may adversely affect the accuracy of the target imaging. The BP algorithm, which has its origins in medical imaging techniques, has been studied to overcome this problem in SAR imaging, because it avoids interpolation associated with domain conversion, but it also has a huge computational cost. Therefore, this paper proposes adaptive processing based on a climb method to find the target indicator as real target responses. The real target responses are predetermined and the raw data are reproduced to reduce the computational cost and to improve the image quality. Finally, the superiority of proposed algorithm is demonstrated using both the simulated and experimental data.