Performance analysis for an interferometric space-based GMTI radar system

This paper presents an algorithm which may be applied to multiple aperture space-based radar systems, and the major aspects of its performance may be summarized as follows: (1) 2D irregularly spaced aperture distributions can be used, allowing for forward and backward looking operation in the presence of orbital motion; (2) clutter statistics are not necessary for evaluating the probability of target detection; (3) clutter is completely separated from target information, thus SNR is the limiting factor to performance; (4) there are multiple ways to deal with ambiguities, but Doppler ambiguities are less cumbersome. Work continues to evaluate the true computational burden, as well as try to minimize it and distribute the operation over multiple processors. In addition, the algorithm is being tested, first against simulated target/clutter data, and eventually against real target return data from the Air Force Research Laboratory´s TechSat 21 Distributed Satellite System experiment