Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Mar 20;21(6):2171.
doi: 10.3390/s21062171.

Experimental Seaborne Passive Radar

Gustaw Mazurek  1 , Krzysztof Kulpa  1 , Mateusz Malanowski  1 , Aleksander Droszcz  1
Affiliations

Experimental Seaborne Passive Radar

Gustaw Mazurek et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

Passive bistatic radar does not emit energy by itself but relies on the energy emitted by illuminators of opportunity, such as radio or television transmitters. Ground-based passive radars are relatively well-developed, as numerous demonstrators and operational systems are being built. Passive radar on a moving platform, however, is a relatively new field. In this paper, an experimental seaborne passive radar system is presented. The radar uses digital radio (DAB) and digital television (DVB-T) for target detection. Results of clutter analysis are presented, as well as detections of real-life targets.

Keywords: maritime; passive bistatic radar; passive coherent location; seaborne.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Four-channel receiver used in the experiments.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Receiving antenna array installed on the side of the ship.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Top view of the antenna array (a) and additional reference antennas on front of ship (b) (some parts of the picture are masked for security and privacy reasons).
Figure 4
Figure 4
RSPduo: dual-tuner SDR (software-defined radio) receiver.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Internal structure of the training signal generator.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Four-channel receiver with the training signal generator and the directional couplers.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Simplified block diagram of the PCL (passive coherent location) processing algorithm.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Surveillance/reference signals’ phase difference during calm seas (a) and the storm (b).
Figure 9
Figure 9
PCL processing algorithm modified for long integration periods.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Sudden flash effect caused by the interference from an injected training signal.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Change of clutter intensity caused by turning of platform with antenna array.
Figure 12
Figure 12
Clutter image during calm seas (a) and its cross-sections for selected bistatic ranges (b).
Figure 13
Figure 13
Clutter image during the storm (a) and its cross-sections for selected bistatic ranges (b).
Figure 14
Figure 14
Situation map with a cooperative CASA C-295 aircraft and a nearby fishing boat.
Figure 15
Figure 15
Detection results of CASA C-295 (subsequent time stamps), scene from Figure 14.
Figure 16
Figure 16
Situation map with a cooperative CASA C-295 aircraft and a distant fishing boat.
Figure 17
Figure 17
Detection results of the CASA C-295 aircraft (subsequent time stamps, scene in Figure 16).
Figure 18
Figure 18
Situation map with the cooperative aircraft and fishing boat.
Figure 19
Figure 19
Detection results of the SUI812/PILATUS PC-12 aircraft (scene in Figure 18).
Figure 20
Figure 20
Situation map of the PILATUS PC-12 and two F-16 jet fighters.
Figure 21
Figure 21
Detection results of the PILATUS PC-12 and two F-16 jet fighters (scene from Figure 20).
Figure 22
Figure 22
Situation map for the THY9 airplane (Boeing Dreamliner).
Figure 23
Figure 23
Detection results of the THY9 airplane (subsequent time stamps).
Figure 24
Figure 24
Situation map for THY79K airplane (Boeing Dreamliner) and CASA C-295.
Figure 25
Figure 25
Detection results of the THY79K and CASA airplanes (subsequent time stamps).
Figure 26
Figure 26
Situation map for the LOT4CG airplane (EMBRAER 175).
Figure 27
Figure 27
Detection results of the LOT4CG airplane (scene in Figure 26).
Figure 28
Figure 28
LOT4CG detection visible with integration time increased to 524 ms (scene in Figure 26).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Malanowski M. Signal Processing for Passive Bistatic Radar. Artech House; Boston, MA, USA: London, UK: 2019.
    1. Brown J., Woodbridge K., Griffiths H., Stove A., Watts S. Passive bistatic radar experiments from an airborne platform. IEEE Aerosp. Electron. Syst. Mag. 2012;27:50–55. doi: 10.1109/MAES.2012.6380826. - DOI
    1. Dawidowicz B., Kulpa K.S., Malanowski M. Suppression of the ground clutter in airborne PCL radar using DPCA technique; Proceedings of the 2009 European Radar Conference (EuRAD); Rome, Italy. 30 September–2 October 2009; pp. 306–309.
    1. Dawidowicz B., Kulpa K.S., Malanowski M., Misiurewicz J., Samczynski P., Smolarczyk M. DPCA Detection of Moving Targets in Airborne Passive Radar. IEEE Trans. Aerosp. Electron. Syst. 2012;48:1347–1357. doi: 10.1109/TAES.2012.6178066. - DOI
    1. Wojaczek P., Summers A., Cristallini D., Walterscheid I., Lombardo P., Colone F. Results of Airborne PCL Under CCI Conditions Using DVB-T Illuminators of Opportunity; Proceedings of the 2018 International Conference on Radar (RADAR); Brisbane, Australia. 27–31 August 2018; pp. 1–6.

LinkOut - more resources