BISTATIC RADAR SYSTEM USING SATELLITE-BASED TRANSMITTERS WITH IONOSPHERIC COMPENSATION

A system for the passive location of non-cooperating vehicles using satellite-based transmitters with ionospheric compensation. The system is a light-weight, low-cost, portable, and field-deployable station to supplement deficiencies in the National Airspace System (NAS) and homeland security surveillance networks. The system accommodates observation modes having long “integration” times that potentially are greater than one second. The system utilizes satellite-based transmitters as illuminators. The passive system measures two radio waves (e.g., a direct path and an illumination plus reflection path), and applies time-difference techniques that can compensate for the ionosphere since the ionospheric delay is applied to both signals. This also has the advantage of compensating for other uncertainties such as exist in the position of the satellite. 1. A method for passive detection and monitoring of target vehicles with non-cooperating satellite-based transmitters , comprising:receiving a reference signal from a satellite-based transmitter at a base station along a first path;receiving a target signal at the base station reflected from a target vehicle along a second path following illumination of the target vehicle by an illuminator signal from the satellite-based transmitter;determining an ionospheric delay of the reference signal and an ionospheric delay of the target signal in traversing the ionosphere from the satellite-based transmitter to the base station;determining a bistatic range as the time difference of arrival at the base station between the reference signal and the target signal along the first and second paths, and adjusted for any errors due to ionospheric delay in receiving the reference and target signals; anddetermining a position of the target vehicle in three-dimensional space based in part on the bistatic range determination.2. The method for passive detection and monitoring of further comprising determining a velocity of the target vehicle ...