Bistatic synthetic aperture radar with application to moving target detection

Bistatic radar involves the use of a physically separated transmitter and receiver. This paper describes a bistatic radar system which uses the combination of a spaceborne synthetic aperture radar transmitter on board the European Space Agency´s Envisat satellite, and a low-cost, stationary, groundbased receiver. The advantages of this variant of the bistatic configuration involve the passive and therefore undetectable nature of the receiver, in addition to standard bistatic considerations such as forward scatter. Experimental results obtained using the receiver, and an analysis into the utility of the system for moving target detection in the presence of clutter, based on a simulation in Matlab of the electronic Displaced Phase Centre Antenna technique are both presented. It is found that the DPCA method considered has a possible signal-to-clutter-and-noise ratio after cancellation and processing of approximately 10dB although this is with the assumption of adequate received pulses and so integration gain, to offset the signal-to-noise ratio degradation caused by the canceller. A discussion of future experimental work, including the possible use of two such receivers for an investigation into interferometry concludes.