Highly Dynamic Doppler Space Target Situation Awareness Algorithm for Spaceborne ISAR

ZHOU Yichen; WANG Yong; DING Wenjun

doi:10.11999/JEIT250667

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ZHOU Yichen, WANG Yong, DING Wenjun. Highly Dynamic Doppler Space Target Situation Awareness Algorithm for Spaceborne ISAR[J]. Journal of Electronics & Information Technology. doi: 10.11999/JEIT250667

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ZHOU Yichen, WANG Yong, DING Wenjun. Highly Dynamic Doppler Space Target Situation Awareness Algorithm for Spaceborne ISAR[J]. Journal of Electronics & Information Technology. doi: 10.11999/JEIT250667

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Highly Dynamic Doppler Space Target Situation Awareness Algorithm for Spaceborne ISAR

doi: 10.11999/JEIT250667 cstr: 32379.14.JEIT250667

School of Electronics and Information Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China

Funds: The National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (62325104)

Received Date: 2025-07-16
Rev Recd Date: 2025-09-09

Available Online: 2025-09-15

Abstract

Abstract

Objective With the growing number of operational satellites in orbit, Space Situation Awareness (SSA) has become a critical capability for ensuring the safety of space operations. Traditional ground-based radar and optical systems face inherent limitations in tracking deep-space objects due to atmospheric interference and orbital obscuration. Therefore, spaceborne Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR) has emerged as a pivotal technology for on-orbit target characterization, offering all-weather, long-duration observation. However, higher-order Three-Dimensional (3D) spatial-variant range migration and phase errors, caused by the complex relative motion between a spaceborne ISAR platform and its target, can seriously degrade imaging quality. Meanwhile, conventional Two-Dimensional (2D) Range–Doppler (RD) imaging provides valuable intensity distributions of scattering points but remains a projection of the target’s 3D structure. The absence of geometric information limits accurate attitude estimation and collision risk assessment. To address these challenges and achieve more comprehensive SSA, this paper proposes a joint space target imaging and attitude estimation algorithm. Methods This paper proposes a joint space target imaging and attitude estimation algorithm composed of three main components: space target imaging characterization, high-resolution imaging, and attitude estimation. First, the imaging characteristics of satellite targets are analyzed to establish the mapping relationship between the image domain and the Doppler parameters of individual scattering points. Second, adaptive segmentation in the two-dimensional (2D) image domain combined with high-precision regional compensation is applied to obtain high-resolution imaging results. Finally, the spatial distribution characteristics of the Doppler parameters are exploited to derive an explicit expression for the second-order Doppler parameters and to estimate the planar component attitude of the target, such as that of the solar wing. Results and Discussions The proposed SSA method achieves high-resolution imaging even in the presence of orbital error and complex 3D spatial-variant Doppler error. Moreover, target attitude estimation can be performed without the need for rectangular component extraction. The effectiveness of the algorithm is verified through three simulation experiments. When the target adopts different attitudes, the method successfully produces both high-resolution imaging results and accurate target attitude estimation (Fig. 7, Fig. 8). To further evaluate performance, comparative simulations are conducted (Fig. 9, Fig. 10). In addition, a method for estimating the long- and short-edge pointing of the satellite solar wing is presented in Section 3.3. The effectiveness of the proposed high-precision imaging algorithm for spinning targets is analyzed in Section 3.4, where the third simulation demonstrates the extended SSA capability of the algorithm (Fig. 11, Fig. 12). Conclusions This paper proposes a joint high-resolution imaging and attitude estimation algorithm to address the situational awareness requirements of highly dynamic Doppler space targets. First, the imaging characteristics of satellite targets and the mapping relationship between scattering points and higher-order Doppler parameters are derived. Second, an adaptive region segmentation algorithm is developed to compensate for 3D spatial-variant errors, thereby significantly enhancing imaging resolution. Meanwhile, an explicit correlation between Doppler parameters and satellite attitude is established based on the characteristics of planar components. Simulation results under different imaging conditions confirm the validity and reliability of the algorithm. Compared with conventional approaches, the proposed method achieves joint compensation of orbital and rotational errors. Furthermore, the attitude estimation process does not require rectangular component segmentation and remains effective even when rectangular components are partially obscured.
- Spaceborne ISAR,
- Space target,
- Space situational awareness,
- High-precision imaging,
- Attitude estimation

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References(16)

References

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