Ricerc@Sapienza

Passive radar has reached a state of relative maturity for what concerns stationary sensor operations, widely proving their ability to detect, localize and track air and ground targets exploiting the signals transmitted by different kinds of illuminators of opportunity (e.g. FM radio, DAB, DVB-T, DVB-S). The extension of passive radar technology to the case of mobile platforms represents an emerging research area and opens new perspectives in the framework of both defense and civil surveillance applications. However, the potential strategic advantages offered by a passive radar mounted on a moving platform are paid in terms of motion induced Doppler distortions of the received signal, which can adversely affect system performance. Specifically, a proper suppression of the Doppler-spread backscattering from the stationary scene is typically required in order to detect moving targets with small radial velocity components, otherwise appearing as buried into clutter. This can be achieved by exploiting systems with multiple receiving channels, enabling space-time processing. The proposed activity aims at developing innovative signal processing techniques and operational strategies, tailored for multichannel mobile passive radars and aimed at detection and localization of moving targets. Several potential scenarios will be considered for bistatic radar application, such as air, ground, and maritime surveillance, from ground-based or airborne moving platforms. The potentialities offered by parasitic exploitation of DVB-T transmitters will be mostly investigated and experimental campaigns are expected to be planned in order to test the developed techniques.