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Advanced Meteor Burst Communications, as planned, will have fixed and mobile MBC stations in nationwide mesh nets.
These, with the master stations, may be used with this or similar multi-static radar to determine the position of MB plasma trails used
for MBC, and then provide positioning of mobile MBC receivers. This can be enhanced, it seems, with sub-nanosecond MB time
schronization as Russian MBC experts have described and tested (see our Scribd papers on that).
Jerome Glaser
Glaser Associates
Los Angeles, CA
ABSTRACT
This paper reviews the concept of a forward-scatter radar (FSR) which exploits the enhanced bistatic radar cross-section of a target in the
forward direction (as opposed to the conventional back-scatter direction). FSR has the potential to reliably detect and track small air-vehi-
cles with high sensitivity. Fundamentals of radar (including monostatic, bistatic, and multistatic) and a brief history are presented. Limita-
tions of FSR radars are presented along with methods for overcoming them based on new technologies – accurate electromagnetic simula-
tors, mesh networks, global positioning system (GPS) location of illuminators and receivers, and smaller and lighter transmitters and
receivers. A program plan to accomplish these goals is given in the Appendices, along with an example of solving the target location for three
transmitters and one receiver.
INTRODUCTION through individual links with the GPS satellites. These links require
In conventional radar configurations, the transmitter and receiver a separate GPS antenna and receiver.
are collocated, and thus can be considered monostatic radar. Con-
versely, bistatic radar is composed of a transmitter and a receiver that PHENOMENOLOGY
are physically separated. Multistatic radar has transmitting and The forward scattered lobe was first predicted by Gustav Mie in the
receiving apertures located in various positions. A recent paper early 1900s.[3] It is produced when an electromagnetic wave illumi-
makes it clear why a new look at multi-static systems is necessary at nates an object and casts a shadow. The shadow occurs because elec-
this time. trical currents are induced in the object whose secondary radiation
cancels the incident wave. By Babinet’s Principle, these currents are
“Compared to conventional radars, multistatic radars have the
potential to provide significantly improved interference- equivalent to the radiation from currents that flow on a planar aper-
rejection, tracking and discrimination performance in severe ture whose shape is the same as that of the shadow, as shown in Fig-
EMI and clutter environments. They can potentially provide ure 2.[4]
significantly improved target tracking accuracy because of the Another explanation is that the interference between the inci-
large baseline between the various apertures. The resulting
angular resolution can be orders of magnitude better than
Forward Scattered Lobe
the resolution of a monolithic system (single large radar).
The same angular resolution can provide improved inter-
ference rejection.”[1] !=4"(A/#)2
Peak Forward RCS
In addition, orthogonal frequency division multiplex- GPS GPS
Aircraft
ing (OFDM) can improve the performance of a radar net- Area = A
work, in which each radar system would be either mono-
static or bistatic. This configuration enables the
Transmitter Bistatic Angle Receiver GPS
classification of objects by ensuring each object is observed GPS
Antenna Antenna Antenna Antenna
from different angles.[2]
Transmitter Receiver GPS
GPS Receiver
What is Forward Scatter Radar? Receiver DDS
The concept of forward scatter radar can be briefly
$ Driver
described as a bistatic or multistatic configuration where Mixer DDS Oscillator
the bistatic angle is close to 180 degrees. The bistatic angle Oscillator DDS
DDS – Direct Digital
is the angle at which the transmitted electromagnetic ener- Synthesizer
gy is scattered off of the target and received, as shown in Transmitter Mesh Acquisition Receiver Mesh
Figure 1. Microcontroller System Microcontroller
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unmanned vehicle can be estimated as follows. The overall length
and width are assumed to be 5 ft (1.5m) and 2 ft (0.6m), respective-
ly. The side projected area is 0.9m2. For L-Band (1GHz) the wave-
length is 0.3m, and for S-Band (3GHz) the wavelength is 0.1m.
The peak radar cross sections are:
A 2
__
! ' 4 ( λ
0.9 2
___
For L-Band !s = 4 ( 0.3 = 113m2 = 20.5 dBsm
0.9 2
___
For S-Band !s = 4 ( 0.1 = 1018m2 = 30.0 dBsm
20.00
Similarly, the approximate angular width of the forward scat-
15.00
tered lobe is determined by Equation 3.[7] 300 MHz
10.00
1 GHz
$(degrees) = 180
___ &
% Equation 3 5.00
Where π L 0.00
3 GHz
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several kilometers from the radar transmitter (Hyland, NRL)
• 1932: Long range (50 nautical miles) aircraft detection (Taylor,
Young, and Hyland)
• 1950s: Development of semiactive missile seekers
• 1960s: Development of radar to detect low-altitude, bomber air-
craft – Brigand and Fluttar (AN/FPS-25)
• Developments from 1970s through 2000s:
• Survivability against antiradiation missiles (ARMs)
• Project MAY BELL 1970 (Declassified in 1996). See Appendix
I.
• Enhanced performance in specific scenarios
Figure 4. Bistatic triangle in which constant range contours of the • Smaller, lighter, more efficient transmitters and receivers
monostatic system, become ellipsoids with the receiver and trans- • GPS links
mitter at the foci.[10] • Silent Sentry System[12] – Uses existing FM or TV radiation
to locate targets
to the receiver, bistatic differential range (BR), and range between
receiver and transmitter (R1). Why Forward Scatter Radar Now?
Forward scatter radar is not a new concept, but there have been
∆R = c∆T = (R1 + R2) – R0 Equation 4 some significant challenges. Some primary issues with forward scat-
ter radars have been outlined in literature, and these are listed
R2 = ∆R
∆R + 2R0
__ _______________
2 ∆R + R0(1 - cos θ) Equation 5 below.[1, 2, 11]
Where 1. Need for cooperation between sites. In particular, wide-band
data links are needed to allow correlation or interferometric
R0 – Baseline distance between transmitter and receiver
R1, R2 – Distances from transmitter to target, target to detection methods to be used.
receiver, respectively 2. Difficulty of coordinate conversion, arising from hyperbolic
θ – Angle between baseline and line from receiver-to-target contours or constant time difference between each transmis-
∆R – Distance difference between direct path signal sion and receiving station.
∆T – Time difference between direct path signal and radar 3. Need for high rejection of electromagnetic interference (EMI)
signal jamming and clutter that is not offered by monostatic radar.
c – Speed of light = 3 x 108 m/s 4. Use of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing for radar
For typical values of ∆Τ = 10-6 sec, ∆Τ = c∆Τ = 300 m, R0 = 1000 and communications
m, az = 0 to 360°, in 5° increments. Limited coverage is another shortcoming of the forward scatter
Using three transmitters and one receiver, the bistatic triangle geometry due to a narrow angular width of the forward scattered
can be solved by the method described in Reference [11]. This is lobe. The coverage can be estimated using the radar range equation
described in Appendix I. (see Equation 6), for which typical parameter values can be used to
determine the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE AND CURRENT CHALLENGES
Brief History of Forward Scatter Radar PavgGtGrλ2 σ
SNR = ––––––––––––––––––– Equation 6
Forward scatter radar has had a long history of developments. Some ( 4 π ) 3 U 2 R 2 LkT 1
– F
milestone events are listed below. τ
Where [Continued from left]
• 1922: First radar detection – demonstration of a bistatic, continu-
ous wave (CW), interference radar to detect a wooden ship (Tay- Pavg – Average transmitter power - Also, MBC can provide
lor and Young, Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)) Gt – Transmit antenna gain sub-nanosecond time
Gr – Receive antenna gain transfer. This is not
• 1930: First aircraft detection – accidental detection of an aircraft
considered in this article on
SkyTel. radar-only technique for
- Generally within range of Table 2. Radar parameters for SNR.[14] location of moving things in
contemplaed MBC master Parameter Symbol Value +/- dB atmosphere.
and remote fixed/ relay Average Power (W) Pavg 3360 35.3 - Combining this timing
stations. Possible in range Transmit Gain (dB) Gt 3.0 3.0 (which results in distance
of mobile-mesh-net- Receive Gain (dB) Gr 3.0 38.6 determination of up and
combined, synchronized Wavelength (m) λ 0.1 -20 down links), with
Bistatic RCS (m) σ 1.0 0
mesh-net antennas. multistatic radar, and
Range between transmitter and target (nautical miles) U2 25 -93.3
- But the master and fixed Range between receiver and target (nautical miles) R2 25 -93.3 other MB based
remote sations, with Loss (dB) L 15.1 15.1 techniques (MB AoA,
multistatic radar, with wide- kT (dB) -204 204 Cognitive Radio Network
beams in 30-50 MHz, may Integration time (s) 1/τ 0.1 -10
be sufficient to determine Noise figure (dB) F 2.8 -2.8 generated intelligent
location of most MBC 4π3 1984 -33 resource maps, etc.)
usable trails by the mobiles. SNR (dB) 13.4 13.4 may result in PNT
- [Continued on right.] independnt of GNSS
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(and that also augments
GNSS).
Figure 5. Illustration of mesh radar in operation.
Dr. Jerome I. Glaser founded Glaser Associates as a consulting firm in antennas, microwave and millimeter waves, and radar. He received a
BS, MS, and PhD, all in electrical engineering from MIT. He has published 35 refereed papers, two book chapters, and holds seven patents
and eight disclosures. Dr. Glaser is a Life Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). Clients of Glaser Associ-
ates include Alcatel-Lucent, John Deere-Navcom, Belkin, Printronix, Ibiquity, Zigrang, and Tomcat-Aerospace. Dr. Glaser was an Assistant
Professor of Electrical Engineering at in the Department of Electrical Engineering at MIT and a Professor of Electrical Engineering Technology
at DeVry Institute. He has given short courses on “Low Observable Radars” in London, “Radar Cross Section” at Pt. Mugu and Goodrich, “Elec-
tromagnetic Simulators” at UCLA Extension, and “Airborne Antennas” at Technology Service Corporation and Lockheed Martin.
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