Results of airborne passive SAR ground and sea target imaging using DVB-T signals

Passive radar is an emerging technology for covert radar surveillance. It is based on using non-cooperative transmitters of opportunity, e.g. DVB-T signals used for digital TV broadcasting, and thus we also have to deal with bistatic geometries. Promising results are shown which is extending this technology to ground surveillance from an aircraft using passive synthetic aperture radar (SAR). Flight trials using the LORA system in a receiver-only mode were conducted in Southern Sweden during 2012. The airborne receiver registered the DVB-T signals transmitted by a 300 m high TV mast and the presented results is based on a receiver flight altitude of 3000 m. Images are then formed by straight forward backprojection techniques. The result will show SAR imaging example of an imaged area up to 40 × 50 km for ranges up to 60 km between the receiver platform and the imaged targets. We focus of some ground and sea vessel targets characteristics.