Thales

Rodolphe Cottron

Pascal Cornic

Patrick Garrec

Stéphane Kemkemian

Richard Montigny

Yoan Veyrac

Jean-Michel Hode

Vincent Corretja

Thierry Mazeau

Renan Le Gall

Dominique Bouard

Philippe Goy

Alexandre Quinquis

Aymeric Deville

Bernard Joseph

Jean-Philippe Lebrat

Jean Michel Hode

A method of locating an aircraft in flight by means of a locating device including at least one sensor and a radar, the method including a first phase of determining a position of the aircraft, referred to as the first position, by means of the at least one sensor according to a signal supplied by the at least one sensor, a second phase of determining, at the same time as the first determination phase, a position of the aircraft, referred to as the second position, by means of the radar, and a phase of comparing data associated with the first position and data associated with the second position after which the first position is either validated or invalidated.

Method for locating an aircraft in flight

A radar imaging method using an active antenna comprising N transmission channels and M reception channels, transmitting in bursts of pointing cycles, is disclosed. The antenna covers a given angular range during a detection time unit of duration T, said time unit corresponds to a burst in which the N transmission channels are focused successively in a number Dof pointing directions (di) such that:

Radar imaging method, and radar implementing such a method

The present invention relates to a method for assisting the landing of an aircraft on a landing runway, the method comprising:

Method for assisting the landing of an aircraft on a landing runway

A method for processing coherent MIMO radar processing DDMA waveforms includes: generating waveforms on transmitters, the waveforms, modulo the pulse repetition frequency, being identical from one transmitter to the next, to within a phase ramp specific to each transmit path; generating, for at least one receiver, a Range-Doppler representation of echoes of transmitted waveforms, where, for each receiver, echoes of a transmitter occupy at least one frequency cell in the Doppler spectrum, each signal band specific to a transmitter, placement of the signal bands in the Doppler spectrum being determined by phase ramp applied to each transmitter, the waveforms generated to leave a portion of Doppler spectrum between two signal bands unoccupied; identifying the transmitter corresponding to each signal band, due to Range-Doppler representation of echoes of transmitted waveforms. The method is suitable for the millimetre band, automotive or aircraft radar, for detection of target relative to the carrier.

Processing method for coherent MIMO radar using DDMA waveforms

A method for creating a virtual reception channel in a radar system includes an antenna possessing two physical reception channels () spaced apart by a distance d in a direction x, two emission channels () spaced apart by the same distance d in the same direction x and processing means, the method comprising: dynamically selecting two different waveforms, the waveforms being orthogonal to each other; generating a radar pulse of given central wavelength in each emission channel, each of the emission channels emitting one of the two different waveforms; acquiring with the reception channels echoes due to pulses emitted by the emission channels and reflected by at least one target; compressing the pulses by matched filtering of the echoes acquired by each physical reception channel, this involving correlating them with each of the waveforms generated in the emission channel; and repeating steps a) to c) while randomly changing one of the values of each of the phase codes associated with the generated waveforms until the level of the sidelobes of all the compressed pulses has stabilized; and radar system for implementing such a method.

Method for creating a least one virtual reception channel using a radar antenna and radar system

A method for optimizing the elevational pointing of an antenna of an airborne radar system at an altitude h includes an antenna and processing and calculation means, the method comprising: a. selecting an area of interest b. calculating atmospheric losses Lat a reference altitude hat the reference range Dand calculating a reference criterion K=&#x2212;40 log(D); c. for each possible elevational pointing distance of the antenna Dfrom the area of interest, calculating the antenna elevation S that makes it possible to target the distance Dvia the centre of the antenna; d. for each distance D from the region of interest, calculating the angle &#x3b8; at which the antenna observes the point of the ground at the distance D and calculating a criterion; 1. K(D)=G(&#x3b8;)+G(&#x3b8;)&#x2212;40 logD+L(h,D)&#x2212;L(h,D) 2. where G(&#x3b8;),G(&#x3b8;) are respectively the gains of the antenna that are normalized at emission and at reception; e. calculating all of the distances D that, for this pointing distance D, satisfy the relationship K(D)&#x3e;Kso as to obtain the start and the end of the sub-swath actually able to be used by the radar system; and calculating the actually usable sub-swaths that are to be juxtaposed (A, B, C) in order to cover the whole of the area of interest without discontinuities.

Method for optimizing the pointing of an antenna of an airborne radar system

A method for active neutralization of the effect of the vibrations of a rotary-wing aircraft for a monostatic Doppler radar includes a first step of measuring and temporally extrapolating the vibration modes at the transmitting-receiving radar antenna, using a 3-axis vibration sensor, fixed to the antenna and near the phase centre of the antenna; then a second step of estimating the expected movements of the transmitting-receiving antenna or of the first transmitting antenna and the second receiving antenna; then a third step of compensating the expected movements of the transmission radar antenna in the transmission chain or in the reception chain of the radar transmitter, wherein the projection of the movement vector of the phase centre O on an aiming direction is calculated to determine the value of the compensation phase shift to be applied.

Method and system for neutralizing the effect of vibrations in a rotary-wing aircraft for airborne doppler radar

The echoes being picked up in the distance-speed domain, the method being wherein it includes a step of producing a mask, in the distance-speed plane, overlying the zone of detection of the ground and/or sea clutter echoes picked up by the sidelobes, the zone being determinable by the antenna parameters of the radar, the waveform emitted by the radar and the environmental context of the radar, all the points of the distance-speed plane which are covered by the mask being assigned a characteristic which is specific to the mask; a step of filtering the received echoes, in which the echoes covered by the mask are rejected from the radar reception processing.

Method for filtering the ground and/or sea clutter echoes intercepted by an airborne radar, and radar implementing such a method

The SAR is provided formed from a plurality of elementary images issued from successive emission spots, the elementary images overlapping zones of overlap, the measurement of the off-pointing is carried out on the basis of the difference between the energies received from two successive spots in a zone of overlap, the compensation being applied to the antenna reception gain in light of the measurement.

Method for compensation of the effect of antenna off-pointing in an SAR image and radar implementing such a method

A method for determining parameters of a finite impulse response pulse compression filter, implemented by a multi-channel radar comprises: a step Etpof transmitting a calibration signal and of acquiring this calibration signal after propagation through the transmission channel, a step Etpof injecting the signal acquired, at the input of each of the reception channels, a step Etpof measuring the signal at the output of each reception channel, a step Etpof calculating the transfer function of the matched filters on the basis of the signals at the output of the reception channels, a step Etpof measuring the value of the average power at the output of the various reception channels and of calculating the relative gains between each of the reception channels and a predetermined reception channel on the basis of the measured values of average powers.

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Merignac, France

Rodolphe Cottron