Multistatic Synthetic Aperture Imaging of Aircraft using Re ected Television Signals

We investigate passive radar imaging of aircraft using re ected TV signals. Such passive multistatic \radar" has been developed to detect and track aircraft with good accuracy. The additional capability of image formation would help to identify targets. The Fourier space sampling provided by passive radar is nonuniform. For a given aircraft ight path, di erent receiver locations give rise to di erent sampling patterns. We simulate multistatic radar returns using Fast Illinois Solver Code (FISC) and show that a good sampling pattern can be used to form a recognizable target image using direct Fourier reconstruction. However, a bad sampling pattern can make it impossible to form a useful image. In the Gaithersburg, MD area, we can select a good receiver location using 21 or fewer channels, which provides good enough Fourier-space coverage to form a useful aircraft image.