Investigations toward multistatic passive radar imaging

Potential for imaging in passive multistatic radar systems is investigated primarily in terms of illuminator type and coherency. A typical set of transmitters in the UHF and VHF bands based upon the local illuminators in the Columbus, Ohio region is presented to constitute a realistic passive imaging environment. A passive radar signal model is then developed and demonstrates one possible processing implementation for imaging across multiple distributed illuminators. From this, the spatial frequency representation of an airborne target traversing a common flight path is presented. This k-space formulation is assessed as a tool for predicting imaging performance, along with potential limitations of the approach for accurately modeling realistic imaging scenarios of multistatic passive radar systems. Finally, simulation results show the -3 dB point target response to be <;1 m for FM transmitters and <;0.2 m for DTV, for the realistic Columbus-based imaging environment.