Automatic Recognition of ISAR Images of Multiple Targets and ATR Results

Abstract—Inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging is an effective method to identify unknown targets regardless of weather and illumination conditions. Research results published regarding this topic have focused mainly on imaging and automatic target recognition (ATR) of single targets. However, targets generally fly in formation, so the applicability of ISAR images to ATR of multiple targets must be studied. This paper proposes an ATR procedure for targets flying in formation. ATR accuracy derived using five targets composed of point scatterers and the measured radar signal of a Boeing 747 aircraft was as high as that of the solo flight in terms of SNR and the size of the training database; this result shows that ISAR is an adequate tool for ATR even if an image is contaminated by radar reflections from neighboring targets. 1