Pattern synthesis for moving target detection with TechSat21-a distributed space-based radar system

We have explored a novel approach for pattern synthesis in angle-frequency space, which is applicable for highly thinned arrays. It exploits the double periodicities of the grating lobes in the angular domain and the radar pulses in the frequency domain and allows substantial clutter suppression. Gains from 7 to 17 dB relative to a randomly, thinned array appear feasible. Further improvements in signal/clutter ratio can be achieved by joint array and filter weight optimization and by narrow-band Doppler filtering.