Maritime Targets Velocity Estimation in Space-Based Passive Multistatic Radar Using Long Integration Times

Abstract

Target detection by means of space-based passive radar sensors generally requires the adoption of long integration time strategies to reinforce sufficiently the signal strength. These are usually based on the recovery of the target Doppler-rate to cope with the range and Doppler migration experienced over the long dwell considered. In this work, we put forward a Taylor-series approach that capitalizes on the set of bistatic Doppler-rates estimated in Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS)-based multistatic radar configurations to estimate the velocity of ship targets with increased accuracy with respect to conventional Doppler-based procedures. Both the cases of single-element and array receiver configurations have been considered. Theoretical and numerical results under different use cases show as leveraging on the long integration times adopted at the detection stage could significantly increase the accuracy of the estimated ship velocity components. Few experimental results are also provided, verifying the potentialities of the proposed approach in operative scenarios of practical interest for this technology. The proposed approach is not limited at the GNSS case, but it could be potentially applied to any multistatic passive radar system.

Moving Target Detection and Parameter Estimation Using BeiDou GEO Satellites-Based Passive Radar With Short-Time Integration

“…This is more like a cross-positioning technique and is theoretically achievable as long as the movement of each satellite can be precisely compensated. As a matter of fact, the aforementioned kinematics parameters recovery problem has been discussed for maritime targets in some recently published works [44], [45]. Another area for future study is the coherent integration of multiple illuminators.…”

Maritime Ship Target Imaging With GNSS-Based Passive Multistatic Radar

“…Noticeably, GNSS-based passive radar belongs to a multistatic radar in nature, enabling target location and velocity estimation. Relevant works can be referred to [16], [17], [18], [19], and [20].…”

“…Furthermore, most proposed algorithms of target detection and location assume that the ship behaves from an electromagnetic point of view as a point-like target whose reflection position is located at the "center of gravity" of the ship. On the contrary, in the real scenario, the reflection position on the target changing with the illumination and scattering angles may be randomly distributed within the target size during the observation time [17], [19], which would degrade the estimation accuracy of these kinematic parameters.…”