Patent ID: 8805005

Claim:
A method of detecting movement parameters of a ground based target by processing first and a second temporal sequences of returns from a Synthetic Aperture system, each sequence collected during separate imaging passes, the returns comprising a plurality of synthetic aperture base images of a region comprising the steps of: i) pairing an image in the second temporal sequence with a corresponding primary image from the first temporal sequence, aligning the images if required and forming a coherent change detection (CCD) image, and repeating for each pair to produce a plurality of CCD base images; ii) forming a reference image from one or more of the CCD base images; iii) forming an “incoherent change detection” (ICD) image by normalising the reference image with a suitably aligned, predetermined CCD base image from the sequence; iv) analyzing the ICD image to detect a track left by the ground based target; and v) detecting the ground based target by producing one or more focused images by manipulating phases of the temporal returns according to motion parameters estimated from the track of the ground based target.