Coherent Change Detection for Predictive Battlespace Awareness: Ground Moving Target Identification (GMTI) Forensics

The SET Team proposes to develop and demonstrate an advanced GMTI Forensics workstation designed to aid the Intelligence Analyst (IA) in detecting IED emplacements and in tracking those involved. The system processes wide-area persistent air-to-ground RF sensor data into images and pass-to-pass change detection products. It screens the data for evidence of motion on the ground and displays those cues to the IA. The IA exploits the data to detect suspicious activities and cues the system to track movers in the vicinity. The system uses space-time adaptive processing to detect movers and estimate their position. The system forms tracks on the movers, displays those tracks and issues track reports. The system uses a novel combination of multi-pass and multi-channel processing to detect and track changes and motion while relying on the IA to provide a focus of attention on suspicious activities. BENEFIT: The technology offers a novel capability to enable forensic analysis of persistent SAR data, providing Intelligence Analysts the ability to detect IED emplacements and trace evidence back in time to determine by who and when the IED was emplaced. This technology has broad ranging implications for our U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan, where IEDs remain the number one cause of military casualties.The technology can also be used for border surveillance to detect and track illegals.