An empirical look at cross-target correlation in bistatic SAR images

Bistatic Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) Automatic target recognition (ATR) is directly related to how similar targets appear at a given bistatic angle. We investigate the correlation coefficient between bistatic SAR images of opposing targets at various bistatic angles to analyze the effect of bistatic angle on ATR. Results using civilian vehicle targets and an EM simulator demonstrate the value of bistatic perspectives in discriminating between targets. We find that targets often appear less similar at bistatic perspectives than they do at the corresponding monostatic perspective.