National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC

Sandia Corporation

Richard M Naething

Richard C Ormesher

Douglas L Bickel

Cameron H Musgrove

Armin W Doerry

Volker Horndt

Various technologies for mitigating interference artifacts in multi-pass synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery are described herein. First and second phase histories corresponding to first and second SAR passes over a scene are processed in image and phase-history domains to correct for spatially-variant and constant phase offsets between the phase histories that can be caused by known and unknown variations in motion of a SAR platform between passes. Data samples from one phase history can then be replaced with data samples from the other phase history to remove artifacts and distortions caused by sources of interference in the scene.

Spectral replacement to mitigate interference for multi-pass synthetic aperture radar

Various technologies for identifying RF emitters in geolocation datasets are described herein. Doppler signatures of RF emitters and geolocation data of objects in a scene are collected simultaneously, then range-rate profiles of the movement of the RF emitters and the objects in the scene are computed. An RF emitter is identified in a geolocation dataset by comparing the motion of the RF emitter with the motion of an object in the scene as described by the respective range-rate profiles.

Doppler-assisted sensor fusion

The various technologies presented herein relate to reducing and/or filtering undesired artifacts in a SAR image, wherein the artifacts are generated by RF interference resulting from a communication signal being included in a radar return which also comprises radar clutter. The radar return is separated into two subapertures, a first subaperture comprising radar clutter only, and a second subaperture comprising radar clutter and the communication signal. The communication signal is extracted from the second subaperture and reapplied to the initially received radar return. Reapplication of the communication signal to the radar return enables any undesired artifacts arising from the communication signal to have their return strength reduced or minimized, while maintaining any desired radar returns in the SAR image.

Artifact reduction within a SAR image

The various technologies presented herein relate to utilizing direction of arrival (DOA) data to determine various flight parameters for an aircraft A plurality of radar images (e.g., SAR images) can be analyzed to identify a plurality of pixels in the radar images relating to one or more ground targets. In an embodiment, the plurality of pixels can be selected based upon the pixels exceeding a SNR threshold. The DOA data in conjunction with a measurable Doppler frequency for each pixel can be obtained. Multi-aperture technology enables derivation of an independent measure of DOA to each pixel based on interferometric analysis. This independent measure of DOA enables decoupling of the aircraft velocity from the DOA in a range-Doppler map, thereby enabling determination of a radar velocity. The determined aircraft velocity can be utilized to update an onboard INS, and to keep it aligned, without the need for additional velocity-measuring instrumentation.

Radar velocity determination using direction of arrival measurements

The various technologies presented herein relate to the determination of whether a received signal comprising radar clutter further comprises a communication signal. The communication signal can comprise of a preamble, a data symbol, communication data, etc. A first portion of the radar clutter is analyzed to determine a radar signature of the first portion of the radar clutter. A second portion of the radar clutter can be extracted based on the radar signature of the first portion. Following extraction, any residual signal can be analyzed to retrieve preamble data, etc. The received signal can be based upon a linear frequency modulation (e.g., a chirp modulation) whereby the chirp frequency can be determined and the frequency of transmission of the communication signal can be based accordingly thereon. The duration and/or bandwidth of the communication signal can be a portion of the duration and/or the bandwidth of the radar clutter.

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Albuquerque, NM, United States of America

Richard M Naething