SYNCHRONIZING AND COHERING A DISTRIBUTED SPARSE ARRAY RADAR

THE OBJECTIVE IS TO ASSESS RADAR SYNCHRONIZATION AND COHERENCE TECHNIQUES FOR A DISTRIBUTED SPARSE ARRAY (DSA) OF SPACECRAFT. THE DSA REPRESENTS THE CULMINATION OF 12 YEARS OF RESEARCH ON THE SUBJECT OF COHERING HIGHLY THINNED, DISPERSED RADAR ARRAYS BY THE VALLEY FORGE RESEARCH CENTER (VFRC) AND A COMPANY CALLED INTERSPEC THAT GREW OUT OF THE VFRC. TO A LARGE EXTENT, THE SUBJECT OF THIS PROPOSAL IS INTERSPEC'S RAISON D'ETRE. MONOLITHIC AND DISTRIBUTED CANDIDATE SPACE BASED AIR DEFENSE RADAR SYSTEMS WILL BE ESTABLISHED AND A COMPUTER PROGRAM WILL BE WRITTEN TO EVALUATE COMPARATIVE PERFORMANCE. METHODS OF LOCATING THE MINIRADARS AND SYNCHRONIZING THEIR CLOCKS WILL BE CONSIDERED ALONG WITH METHODS OF DISTRIBUTING PHASES. TIMING AND POSITION NEED NOT BE KNOWN TO WITHIN A FRACTION OF A WAVELENGTH AS LONG AS PHASE COHERENCE CAN BE MAINTAINED. A LARGE NUMBER OF COHERING TECHNIQUES DEVELOPED BY VFRC AND INTERSPEC WILL BE ASSESSED IN TERMS OF PERFORMANCE, COMPLEXITY, AND OPERATIONAL SURVIVABILITY. IN ADDITION, A NOVEL MEANS TO NULL SIDELOBE CLUTTER IN A DISTRIBUTED ARRAY WILL BE ADDRESSED AND PROBLEMS OF RECONFIGURABILITY AND AREA COVERAGE RATE WILL BE ADDRESSED.