Radar polarimetry for security applications

We analyse micro-Doppler techniques and the improved performance that fully polarimetric radar techniques can add. We perform fully polarimetric measurements of the varying micro-Doppler signatures of humans as a function of elevation angle and azimuthal angle in order to try to optimize this type of system for the detection of arm motion, especially for the determination of whether someone is loaded. We determine that polarimetric measurements can isolate and highlight the arm motion for a classification as loaded or unloaded. Second, the azimuthal angle of the motion is a critical parameter to consider in ground-based systems. For choke-point observations where the direction of motion is more controlled, polarimetric radar has the potential to determine who is not loaded inappropriately and who should be checked.