VSAR: A NEW SENSOR FOR DETECTING LOW RCS GROUND TARGETS

THE VELOCITY SAR (VSAR) IS A NOVEL RADAR SYSTEM WHICH COMBINES THE HIGH-RESOLUTION IMAGING CAPABILITY OF SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR (SAR) WITH VELOCITY DISCRIMINATION. THE PROPOSED SYSTEM MAKES IT POSSIBLE TO "FILTER OUT" VARIOUS FEATURES OF THE SURVEILLANCE SCENE BASED ON THEIR MOTION. THEREFORE, THE SYSTEM PROVIDES A VERY POWERFUL CLUTTER REJECTION CAPABILITY WHICH CAN BE USED FOR DETECTING LOW RCS GROUND TARGETS MOVING AT LOW SPEEDS. THE VSAR COMBINES THE CLUTTER REJECTION PROPERTIES OF SAR AND MTI SYSTEMS IN A UNIQUE WAY, TO PROVIDE AN UNPARALLELED PERFORMANCE ADVANTAGE. THE VSAR SYSTEM IS CURRENTLY BEING DEVELOPED FOR OCEAN SURVEILLANCE APPLICATIONS, WHERE IT WAS USED TO RECONSTRUCT THE THREE DIMENSIONAL IMAGE (RANGE, AZIMUTH, AND VELOCITY) OF THE TIME VARYING OCEAN SURFACE. THE OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSED PHASE I PROJECT IS TO EVALUATE, BY A COMBINATION OF ANALYSIS AND SIMULATION, THE FEASIBILITY OF USING THIS TYPE OF A SYSTEM TO DETECT NEXT GENERATION LOW RCS GROUND TARGETS. ANTICIPATED BENEFITS/POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS - THE VSAR HAS IMMEDIATE APPLICATIONS FOR SPACE AND AIRBORNE SURVEILLANCE, INCLUDING: WIDE AREA OCEAN SURVEILLANCE, HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGING OF MOVING TARGETS AND TROOPS IN TACTICAL SITUATIONS, AND A WIDE RANGE OF INTELLIGENCE MISSIONS. AN ALL-WEATHER DAY/NIGHT HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGING SENSOR SUCH AS THE VSAR IS EXPECTED TO HAVE NUMEROUS APPLICATIONS IN STRATEGIC AND TACTICAL SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS. THE VSAR IS EXPECTED TO BE VERY USEFUL FOR COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS RELATED TO REMOTE SENSING OF THE OCEAN AND AIRCRAFT TRAFFIC CONTROL.