Maritime forward scatter radar: data collection and clutter analysis

This thesis is the result of study into development, experimental testing and clutter analysis in a Forward Scatter Radar (FSR) designed to detect low reflectivity maritime targets at low grazing angles. The concept of such kind of maritime system is presented; its advantages for surveillance applications are described. Scattering of Electromagnetic (EM) Waves over the sea surface at different radar configurations is outlined with the focus made on forward scattering and appropriate sea clutter models. Phenomenology of the signals in FSR is examined and explained. The development of an experimental FSR hardware operating in X- and K- frequency bands for target detection and clutter analysis and its performance are described in details. It follows with the comprehensive analysis on the measured sea clutter which includes study of influence of a large number of parameters of the radar and sea conditions on the clutter spectral and statistical properties. Finally preliminary analysis of radio frequency (RF) target signatures made with the prototype radar is presented

The study of target shadows using passive FSR systems

The paper describes one possible algorithm for object detection by using of Forward Scatter (FS) radio shadows created by objects. The algorithm is verified on the experimental data collected by a GPS receiver with a small commercial antenna. The results obtained show the possibility for object detection when its FS shadow is present

Multi-channel target shadow detection in GPS FSR

The paper offers new application of a Multi-channel Forward Scatter Radar (MFSR), which uses GPS signals for detection of air targets on their GPS radio shadows. The multi-channel GPS MFSR detector consists of several channels, which process information from several satellites simultaneously. The phenomena of diffraction in the near area is used for shadow target detection. The target is considered to be detected, if it is detected at least in one of detector channels. Two experiments have been made to verify the proposed detection algorithm. The results obtained show that the proposed multi-channel detection algorithm can be successfully used for detection of low- flying air targets at very short distances or the near area of diffraction. Such targets are undetectable in GPS bistatic radar

Separation of GPS signals in FSR system

An approach and algorithm are proposed for separating the useful signal from a moving cosmic target and the direct signal transmitted by GPS satellites, on the background of the receiver noise. The algorithms for separating the useful signal will be based on the principle of separation in speed of two GPS signal sequences, the first-with a satellite velocity (reference signal), the second-with the target velocity. We will evaluate their performance with computer calculation or simulation