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

Area of Science:

• Radar Systems Engineering
• Signal Processing
• Electromagnetics

Background:

• Passive radar systems utilize non-cooperative signals of opportunity for target detection.
• Mobile passive radar presents challenges due to non-homogeneous clutter and limited training data.
• Accurate detection and Direction of Arrival (DOA) estimation are crucial for tracking slow-moving targets.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a dual-cancelled channel space-time adaptive processing (STAP) scheme for multichannel mobile passive radar.
• To reduce computational complexity and training data requirements compared to conventional full array methods.
• To enhance target detection and DOA estimation accuracy in challenging clutter environments.

Main Methods:

• Development of a dual-cancelled channel STAP algorithm.
• Implementation within a multichannel mobile passive radar architecture.
• Validation using simulated data and experimental data from a DVB-T based system.

Main Results:

• The proposed dual-cancelled channel STAP scheme achieves comparable target detection and DOA estimation accuracy to full array solutions.
• Significant reduction in computational complexity and training data needs is demonstrated.
• The method shows robustness against adaptivity losses, performing well with limited training data.

Conclusions:

• The dual-cancelled channel STAP scheme is an effective and computationally efficient solution for passive Ground Moving Target Indication (GMTI).
• The proposed method offers improved performance in non-homogeneous clutter scenarios typical of bistatic passive radar.
• The approach is suitable for real-world applications using digital television broadcasting (DVB-T) signals.