Target detection in first-order regions by bistatic radar

This paper deals with first-order-region detection of target by bistatic system, which is a delicate problem for radar developers. A new bistatic model was presented, and the model-based method was developed to eliminate blind-speed zones. With analyzing the bistatic model geometry, by trigonometric cosine law, slave-radar data was utilized to restore target information if main-radar first-order sea echoes smeared the ship target. To get target signal from the slave radar, the ship target was firstly located in the slave radar roughly according to its last position in the main radar. Then for the candidate ship, the agreement of azimuth, distance and radial velocity between array-measured results and equation-solved values was used as acceptance criterion. The method shows good performance on the data recorded by ocean state measurement and analysis radar, a bistatic system manufactured in 2003 (OSMAR2003).