Patent ID: 6952178

Claim:
A method for detecting moving objects and estimating their velocity and position in SAR images, comprising: generating a sequence of single-look SAR images which are of the same polarization, are successive with respect to time, and have a look center frequency which varies from one image to the next; detecting candidates for moving objects in said single-look SAR images by searching for regions with a course of intensity which deviates from a surrounding environment: estimating velocity of detected candidates by estimation of at least one displacement vector of one candidate respectively, utilizing a correlation between successive single-look SAR images; and verifying detected candidates as moving objects; wherein estimation of at least one velocity component of a detected candidate takes place jointly with an estimation of at least one position component of the candidate; a cost function is established as a function of the components to be estimated, taking into account positions of the candidate in the individual single-look SAR images of the sequence; the cost function is minimized by means of an optimization method for the parameter or parameters to be estimated; and the cost function also takes into account time-dependent amplitudes of the candidates in the individual single-look SAR images of the sequence.