Comparison of two-step and one-step motion compensation algorithms for airborne synthetic aperture radar

Airborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image quality considerably degrades because of motion errors. High-precision motion compensation (MOCO) is necessary in an advanced SAR data processing scheme. In the case of ultra-high resolution, the conventional two-step MOCO algorithm introduces significant range cell migration correction (RCMC) error which causes a loss to resolution. Another method named one-step MOCO can avoid RCMC error, improving image quality obviously. Meanwhile, one-step MOCO can well integrate with the standard Omega-K algorithm succinctly. A comparison of the two MOCO algorithms is demonstrated by analysing the RCMC error. Point targets simulation has validated the proposed research.