Facing channel calibration issues affecting passive radar DPCA and STAP for GMTI

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of clutter cancellation for ground moving target indication (GMTI) in multi-channel passive radar on mobile platforms. Specifically, the advantages of a space-time adaptive processing (STAP) approach are presented, compared to a displaced phase centre antenna (DPCA) approach, in the case of an angle-dependent imbalance affecting the receiving channels. The schemes are tested against simulated clutter data. Finally, a space-time GLRT detection scheme is proposed, where steering vector is not specified in the spatial domain, resulting in a non-coherent integration of target echoes across the receiving channels. Such solution offers comparable clutter cancellation capability and is more robust against significant calibration errors compared to a conventional GLRT detector, which suffers from spatial steering vector mismatches.

Passive Radar STAP Detection and DoA Estimation Under Antenna Calibration Errors

“…We propose a partially noncoherent space-time GLRT detector (referred to as NC-GLRT), where the steering vector is specified in the Doppler domain but not specified in the spatial domain, resulting in a noncoherent integration of the spatial target echoes. Such a detector, first introduced in [14], can be derived along the line of the article presented in [37], where a polarimetric adaptive detection scheme is addressed. Considering the spatial component of the steering vector s s as a vector of unknown parameters, we replace it with its ML estimate during the derivation process.…”

“…The intrinsic limitations of DPCA and its reliance on an adaptive calibration stage for the compensation of localized errors suggest moving in the direction of a space-time adaptive processing (STAP) approach [14]. At the expense of a higher computational load, STAP has more flexibility and adaptation capability, thanks to a higher number of adaptive degrees of freedom.…”

The Impact of Channel Errors in Passive Coherent Location Radar using FM Base Stations

“…These differences are due to reasons such as different cable lengths, inequivalent filters, or timing jitter of oscillators in receivers. The influence of channel calibration issue is analysed for DVB-T based multi-channel PCL system in ground moving target indication (GMTI) [23]. The problem of direct signal interference and clutter cancellation are discussed in [24] for passive radar systems.…”

Dual Cancelled Channel STAP for Target Detection and DOA Estimation in Passive Radar

“…Recent advances in passive radar research have opened interesting new perspectives and application areas [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. Among them, in the last few years, the potentialities of passive radar mounted onboard moving platforms have been investigated, aiming towards synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ] and ground moving target indication (GMTI) [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ] applications.…”

“…Such limitations can be overcome by employing multiple channels on receive and applying adaptive space-time processing (STAP) techniques [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Specifically, a complete scheme for STAP in mobile passive radar has been recently proposed by the authors in [ 18 ].…”