Experimental 3-D SAR human target signature analysis

Defence Research and Development Canada has been investigating 3-D through wall synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging from an experimental L-band through-wall SAR prototype. Tools and algorithms for 3-D visualization are being developed to exploit the resulting imagery. In this paper, a comprehensive study of the characteristics of human target signatures in free space and behind two different wall structures is presented using 3-D SAR data. The aim of this investigation is to gain a better appreciation of the signatures of targets when placed behind different wall materials. An analysis of the human target signature in different poses is provided. There was very close agreement between the measured physical dimensions of the targets and those obtained from the strong returns in the SAR imagery. Viewing of the SAR data as 2-D slices provides a qualitative means of discriminating between different target signatures. A more useful approach to discrimination is to quantify these differences. The next phase of this investigation will look at different quantitative features as potential discriminants.