A Passive Radar for Atmospheric Remote Sensing Using Commercial FM Broadcasts
Abstract
We are developing a completely passive bistatic radar using commercial FM broadcasts near 100 MHz. By correlating a clean copy of the broadcasts with the weak, delayed scatter at a remote site, we will generate the full range-Doppler profile of ion acoustic turbulence near the auroral electrojets. More precisely we will be calculating the cross ambiguity function of data from two receivers separated by approximately 100 km, intending to detect targets at slant ranges as large as 1000 km. The AFOSR funded portion of this project is now complete. We have completed construction of a fully functional bistatic radar, synchronized in time and frequency using Global positioning System (GPS) technology. We have successfully detected aircraft at ranges as great as 240 km with 1.5 m/s velocity resolution. Detection of aircraft is an important step in detecting auroral turbulence, which has similar scattered power and Doppler shift. An overview of this work has been presented at two international conferences and resulted in two refereed publications and three MS theses.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 05, 1998
- Accession Number
- ADA359331
Entities
People
- John D. Sahr
Organizations
- University of Washington