Experimental results of ground moving target detection achieved with the multi-channel SAR/MTI system PAMIR

The airborne experimental multichannel SAR/MTI system PAMIR (phased array multifunctional imaging radar) has been designed and developed by FGAN-FHR in order to demonstrate some capabilities of future reconnaissance systems. One main feature of these radars is the surveillance of wide areas for moving targets. Since 2003, a special scan-MTI mode has been implemented in the PAMIR system and experimentally tested: to improve the moving target detection performance, radar bursts are transmitted at five different carrier frequencies, which allows to avoid blind velocities, to resolve velocity ambiguities and to increase the probability of target detection. Some specific algorithms are currently under development in order to process the scan-MTI data gathered during the flight campaign of November 2003. This paper presents some experimental scan-MTI results achieved with the PAMIR system. After an overview of the PAMIR experimental system and of the GMTI experiment conducted, the scan-MTI signal processing algorithm is described. Then, some results obtained after processing of the data acquired during the experiment are shown