Transponder-aided joint calibration and synchronization compensation for distributed radar systems

PLoS One. 2015 Mar 20;10(3):e0119174. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0119174. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

High-precision radiometric calibration and synchronization compensation must be provided for distributed radar system due to separate transmitters and receivers. This paper proposes a transponder-aided joint radiometric calibration, motion compensation and synchronization for distributed radar remote sensing. As the transponder signal can be separated from the normal radar returns, it is used to calibrate the distributed radar for radiometry. Meanwhile, the distributed radar motion compensation and synchronization compensation algorithms are presented by utilizing the transponder signals. This method requires no hardware modifications to both the normal radar transmitter and receiver and no change to the operating pulse repetition frequency (PRF). The distributed radar radiometric calibration and synchronization compensation require only one transponder, but the motion compensation requires six transponders because there are six independent variables in the distributed radar geometry. Furthermore, a maximum likelihood method is used to estimate the transponder signal parameters. The proposed methods are verified by simulation results.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Models, Theoretical*

Grants and funding

The work described in this study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant 41101317 and the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University under grant NCET-12-0095. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.