Passive radar is one of the most rapidly developing fields in the radar technology in recent years. The ground-based passive radar technology is now entering a stage of maturity. In the past, in a case of active radars, the technology developed for ground-based sensing was adapted for airborne platforms. The same trend has been observed in the passive radar technology as it is being adapted for moving platforms, mostly the airborne ones. Major aims of this adaptation include, among others, protection of the platforms, detection of airborne and surface moving targets and remote sensing, including SAR and ISAR imaging. The use of mobile PCL systems provides an extended functionality in comparison to the one of the stationary ground-based radars. The chapter consists of two key sections. The first section presents the passive imaging technique based on a bistatic SAR concept, the second section discusses the main challenges for the airborne passive radars, in particular a cancelation of Doppler spread clutter, and also presents solutions based on the CLEAN techniques, DPCA and space-time adaptive processing. All theoretical considerations are illustrated with the simulation and experimental validation examples.

Chapter Contents:

• Abstract
• 17.1 Airborne passive synthetic aperture radar
• 17.1.1 Signal dynamic range considerations
• 17.1.2 Range and cross-range resolution in airborne passive SAR
• 17.1.3 Airborne passive SAR experiments
• 17.1.4 PASAR conclusions
• 17.2 Target detection in airborne passive radar
• 17.2.1 Monostatic case
• 17.2.2 Received signal model
• 17.2.3 Estimation of the multichannel passive radar parameters
• 17.2.4 Time datacube
• 17.2.5 Target detection in passive airborne radar
• 17.2.6 Clutter cancellation in airborne passive radar
• 17.2.7 Measurement campaigns
• 17.2.8 Airborne passive radar conclusions
• References

Inspec keywords: radar imaging; synthetic aperture radar; passive radar; Doppler radar; space-time adaptive processing; airborne radar; radar clutter; radar interferometry

Other keywords: Doppler spread clutter cancelation; remote sensing; ISAR imaging; CLEAN techniques; space-time adaptive processing; mobile PCL systems; passive imaging technique; active radars; stationary ground-based radars; ground-based sensing; airborne passive radar; surface moving targets; ground-based passive radar technology; bistatic SAR concept

Subjects: Radar equipment, systems and applications; Radar theory; Signal processing and detection; Optical, image and video signal processing