Patent Document ID: 9651661
Application ID: 14682582
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for processing synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data, the method comprising the steps of: receiving a plurality of SAR data that has been collected to provide a representation of a target scene; dividing, using a processor the collected SAR data for the target scene into a plurality of sub-blocks, each of the plurality of sub-blocks comprising a plurality of pixels, each of the plurality of pixels comprising a coordinate and an amplitude; applying a local principal axis rotation transformation to each of the plurality of sub-blocks, the local principal axis rotation transformation comprising the steps of: (i) computing, for a sub-block, a mean coordinate using the coordinates for the plurality of pixels in the sub-block; (ii) subtracting, for each of the plurality of pixels in the sub-block, the mean coordinate from the pixel's actual coordinate to arrive at a modified coordinate; (iii) multiplying, for each of the plurality of pixels in the sub-block, the modified coordinate by the amplitude to arrive at an amplitude-modified coordinate; (iv) creating a covariance matrix using the amplitude-modified coordinates; (v) performing a singular value decomposition on the covariance matrix to arrive at a vector; and (vi) associating an angle with the calculated vector.