Spaceborne radar for the global surveillance of ships over the ocean

This paper describes a spaceborne radar (SBR) concept for the world-wide detection and tracking of ships. After a discussion of several different radar approaches, the fixed sidelooking radar with noncoherent processing is described as the preferred method based on its reliability and cost. The characteristics of this radar are given along with potential methods for acquiring target information for such purposes as recognition and determining ship's direction and speed to aid in tracking. Comparisons with published descriptions of SBR for aircraft surveillance show SBR for the ocean surveillance of ships to be significantly smaller and less complex than SBR for the surveillance of aircraft.