Low-angle radar tracking in a naval environment using aforward-backward nonlinear prediction method

A low-angle tracking technique based on a novel high-resolution algorithm is presented. The new high-resolution algorithm, which is called the forward-backward nonlinear prediction (FBNLP) method, replaces the linear predictor in the conventional forward-backward linear prediction (FBLP) method with a nonlinear one to try to improve the tracking in a realistic naval environment, Real radar tracking data over the sea, which were recorded with a 32-element sampled aperture antenna on an “over-water” path, were used in this study. They were recorded in a multipath environment, i.e., one where, in addition to the customary direct signal, an indirect signal was also received by the antenna system, and separation of these two signals was less than one standard beamwidth. The performance of the FBNLP method is shown to be better than that of the modified FBLP algorithm for the data sets used in this paper     

Short pulse radar used to measure sea surface wind speed and SWH

A joint airborne measurement program is being pursued by NRL and NASA Wallops Flight Center to determine the extent to which wind speed and sea surface significant wave height (SWH) can be measured quantitatively and remotely with a short pulse (2 ns), wide-beam (60deg), nadir-looking 3-cm radar. The concept involves relative power measurements only and does not need a scanning antenna, doppler filters, or absolute power calibration. The slopes of the leading and trailing edges of the averaged received power for the pulse limited altimeter are used to infer SWH and surface wind speed. The interpretation is based on theoretical models of the effects of SWH on the leading edge shape and rms sea-surface slope on the trailing-edge shape. The models include the radar system parameters of antenna beam width and pulsewidth. Preliminary experimental results look promising and indicate that it may be possible to design a relatively compact airborne radar to infer, in real-time, the sea surface SWH and surface wind speed.     

The average impulse responce of a rough surface and its applications

This paper is concerned with the theoretical model for short pulse scattering from a statistically random planar surface with particular application to current state of the art radar altimetry. A short review of the assumptions inherent in the convolutional model is presented. Simplified expressions are obtained for both the impulse response and the average backscattered power for near normal incidence under the assumptions common to satellite radar altimetry systems. In particular, it is shown that the conventional two-dimensional surface integration can be reduced to a closed form solution. Two applications of these results are presented relative to radar altimetry, namely, radar antenna pointing angle determination and altitude bias correction for pointing angle and surface roughness effects. It is also shown that these results have direct application to the analysis of the two frequency system proposed by Weissman, and a possible combined long pulse altimeter and two frequency system is suggested.     

Remote sensing of icebergs by ground-wave Doppler radar

A software detection model has been developed to predict the returned Doppler spectrum for an iceberg target for ground-wave Doppler radars. This software model is based on proposed new estimates for the backscattered Doppler-dependent iceberg cross section for assumed iceberg models, as well as the backscattered Doppler spectrum from the ocean surface. The model includes estimates for forward and reverse transmission losses, based on classical spherical earth derivations. In addition, the transmission losses account for the effects of surface roughness through a modified surface impedance. Standard estimates for man-made and atmospheric noise have been considered in the detection model. A comparison between the results predicted by the detection model and data acquired during an experiment conducted at Byron Bay, Labrador, Canada has been effected. The hardware used for the experiment was an HF Doppler radar operating at 25.40 MHz. The transmitting antenna was a three-element Yagi array and the receiving antenna a 24-element narrow-beam linear array. By using iceberg ground truthing information the Doppler spectrum for individual icebergs was predicted using the software model. The predicted spectra were compared with the received spectra on a target signal-to-noise power ratio basis. The results of this comparison give a degree of confidence to the detection model and show that ground-wave radars are effective ice hazard remote sensors.     

Sea-clutter modeling using a radial-basis-function neural network

Recently, neural networks have been proposed for radar clutter modeling because of the inherent nonlinearity of clutter signals. This paper performs an analysis of the practicality of using a radial basis function (RBF) neural network to model sea clutter and to detect small target embedded in sea clutter. An experiment using an instrumental quality radar was carried out on the eastcoast of Canada to create a rich sea clutter and small surface target database. This database contains both staring and scanning data under various environmental conditions. Using data-sets with different characteristics, we investigate the effects of quantization error, measurement noise, generalization of the neural net over ranges and sampling rate on the RBF clutter model. Despite these physical limitations, the RBF model was shown to approach an optimal predictive performance. The RBF predictor was also applied to detect various small targets in this database based on the constant false alarm rate (CFAR) principle. This RBF-CFAR detector was demonstrated to be able to detect small floating targets even in rough sea conditions     

Position Correction Using Echoes From a Navigation Fix for Synthetic Aperture Sonar Imaging

In synthetic aperture sonar (SAS), the platform position must be known sufficiently accurately for signals to be added coherently along the synthetic aperture. Often, the onboard navigation system is insufficiently accurate by itself, so corrections are needed. A well-known method is the displaced phase center antenna (DPCA) procedure for correcting platform position using seabed echoes. DPCA methods have the advantage of insensitivity to changing interference patterns, moving specular reflection, and changing occlusion, with aspect. However, when seabed echoes are unusable, either because they are too weak, or because they are corrupted by multipath, the seabed DCPA method may fail. Therefore, we present an alternative DPCA method using sonar echoes from a suitable navigation fix, based on an object detected after standard beamforming. In our proposed system, look angle is obtained by tracking the centroid of the rectified image of the fix object. When the standard DPCA correction equations are modified for a fixed reflector, it turns out that they provide incremental range and look-angle errors, precisely the values required when the target itself is used as the navigation fix. Moreover, the values obtained are then self-compensating for errors in estimating seabed depth or forward motion of the platform. The navigation fix is selected by bracketing in range, and beamforming overlapping subsets of the receiver array. In this paper, we present experimental results at transmitter frequencies of 25 and 100 kHz where our method enabled well-focused SAS images to be generated with little recourse to other navigation information. Hence, SAS can be carried out, even when a sophisticated inertial navigation system (INS) is not available.      

海浪微波散射理论模式

在假设海面白帽为球形气泡层的基础上,利用白帽海面的矢量辐射传输方程各随机粗糙面散射模型建立了海面的微波散射模型。辐射传输方程利用迭代法求解,随机粗糙面散射模型采用双尺度散射模型,利用白帽覆盖率的经验公式计算海面的微波散射特性。数值计算结果表明,随着气泡厚度的增加球形气泡散射系数越来越接近球形粒子散射系数;白帽对散射同的贡献随风速增大而增大;侧风情况比逆风和顺风情况影响均大;水平极化比垂直极化影响大     

地波雷达目标检测跟踪联合处理粒子滤波方法

针对固定粒子数PF-TBD算法计算量大、复杂环境下地波雷达海上船只目标检测与跟踪性能不佳的问题,本文将粒子滤波方法应用于地波雷达船只目标检测与跟踪中,提出了基于自适应粒子滤波的地波雷达目标检测与跟踪联合处理方法。该方法结合地波雷达回波谱中目标展宽特性,充分利用了地波雷达回波谱中面目标的粒子权重信息来设置粒子自适应采样策略,提高了目标检测和跟踪联合处理的效果。通过地波雷达实测数据的目标跟踪结果及与同步AIS信息的比对分析,结果表明:提出的检测跟踪联合处理方法在对低信噪比、快速机动等复杂环境下的多目标跟踪时,可提高目标整体跟踪性能。     

基于弧段检测的高频地波雷达特定目标航迹跟踪方法研究

本文对现有的高频地波雷达目标跟踪方法进行了概述,提出了一种地波雷达目标长时连续跟踪的方法,基本思想是:充分挖掘航迹弧段特征,基于特征对船只运动建模,并结合杂波背景进行融合决策。进一步,为了达到长时间连续跟踪的需求,借鉴深度学习的思想,利用新获取的弧段数据对算法估计结果不断递归校正,使得随着获取数据的增加跟踪越准确。该方法适用于杂波环境且在航道附近存在众多干扰船只的情况下对机动目标航迹的实时稳定跟踪,为高频地波雷达在复杂干扰环境下特定目标持续跟踪提供理论基础和方法指导,为充分发挥地波雷达在海上监视监测中的作用提供技术支撑。     

极化X波段雷达海面溢油微波散射模型研究

为研究溢油对海面电磁散射的影响,作者根据海面复合微波散射模型理论和蒙特卡洛统计模型理论,通过引入单分子油膜的黏性阻尼,对粗糙的溢油海面进行建模,定量分析溢油对海浪谱和海面后向散射系数值两个方面的影响。为实现基于X波段雷达海面溢油检测提供理论支撑,有助于解决溢油检测中的虚警率高的问题。     

An analysis of the radar backscatter from oil-covered sea surfaces using moment method and Monte-Carlo simulation: preliminary results

An analysis of the radar backscattering from the ocean surface covered by oil spill is presented using a microwave scattering model and Monte-Carlo simulation. In the analysis, a one-dimensional rough sea surface is numerically generated with an ocean waveheight spectrum for a given wind velocity. A two-layered medium is then generated by adding a thin oil layer on the simulated rough sea surface. The electric fields backscattered from the sea surface with two-layered medium are computed with the method of moments (MoM), and the backscattering coefficients are statistically obtained with N independent samples for each oil-spilled surface using the Monte-Carlo technique for various conditions of surface roughness, oil-layer thickness, frequency, polarization and incidence angle. The numerical simulation results are compared with theoretical models for clean sea surfaces and SAR images of an oil-spilled sea surface caused by the Hebei (Hebei province, China) Spirit oil tanker in 2007. Further, conditions for better oil spill extraction are sought by the numerical simulation on the effects of wind speed and oil-layer thickness at different incidence angles on the backscattering coefficients.     

An analytical model for the HF backscattered Doppler spectrum for the ocean surface

An analysis previously developed for rough surface scattering with narrow-beam reception is extended to wide-beam or omnidirectional reception. The source is considered to be a pulsed electric dipole. The analysis includes multipathing effects on the received signal. The results are used to develop a model for the backscattered radar cross section of the ocean surface, up to a second-order approximation.     

Model-based enhancement of internal wave images

The measurement of internal-wave signatures using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) or real aperture radar (RAR) techniques is an emerging technology that offers a viable means of locating and tracking surface ship wakes by their unique signatures. Under the assumption that the image measured by the radar is dominated by the underlying dynamics of the internal wave, we develop model-based techniques for enhancement based on a recently developed generic dispersive-wave processor. Using images synthesized by a sophisticated propagation model, it is shown that the processor not only offers a unique approach compared to the more traditional image-processing techniques that do not incorporate the propagation model, but is also capable of providing reasonable enhancement of the noisy measurements     

Comparison of the radiometric signatures of ore boats and their wakes at 35 GHz with model calculations

Vertically polarized antenna temperatures of ore boats and their wakes were measured with a 35-GHz radiometer from a helicopter platform. The signatures of the boats appear to be independent of viewing angle at a temperature which is about 40 K cooler than the surrounding water. The signatures of the wakes show a dependence on viewing angle. Models for the antenna temperature are presented which fit the measured data to within the accuracy of the measurement and model parameters. These models are useful in themselves for predicting the antenna temperatures of targets in terms of parameters such as viewing angle, beam fill factor (BFF), antenna main beam efficiency, and target emissivity.     

Calibration and Validation of Direction-Finding High-Frequency Radar Ocean Surface Current Observations

This paper focuses on the validation of remotely sensed ocean surface currents from SeaSonde-type high-frequency (HF) radar systems. Hourly observations during the period July 22, 2003 through September 9, 2003 are used from four separate radar sites deployed around the shores of Monterey Bay, CA. Calibration of direction-finding techniques is addressed through the comparisons of results obtained using measured and ideal (i.e., perfect) antenna patterns. Radial currents are compared with observations from a moored current meter and from 16 surface drifter trajectories. In addition, four overwater baselines are used for radar-to-radar comparisons. Use of measured antenna patterns improves system performance in almost all cases. Antenna-pattern measurements repeated one year later at three of the four radar locations exhibit only minor changes indicating that pattern distortions are stable. Calibrated results show root-mean-square (rms) radial velocity differences in the range of 9.8-13.0 cm/s, which suggest radar observation error levels in the range of 6.9-9.2 cm/s. In most cases, clear evidence of bearing errors can be seen, which range up to 30deg for uncalibrated radar-derived radial currents and up to 15deg for currents obtained using measured antenna patterns. Bearing errors are not, however, constant with angle. The results recommend use of measured antenna patterns in all SeaSonde-type applications. They also recommend an expanded simulation effort to better describe the effects of antenna-pattern distortions on bearing determination under a variety of ocean conditions     

Computerized detection of seamounts from Seasat type geodetic data

Abstract

Geoid heights and vertical deflections derived from satellite radar altimetry contain characteristic signals that may be reproduced and explained by simple models for seamount gravitation acting on the sea surface. Computer algorithms capable of automatic operation and able to detect, approximately locate, and estimate parameters constraining the shape of actual sea‐mounts were written and tested. The computer program which utilized a digital high‐pass filter combined with a roughness sensor was effective in separating the seamount produced geoid undulation/vertical deflection pattern from the remaining data track features, simultaneously detecting and locating along the track such signals. Tests of the algorithm on several SEASAT passes over known bathymetry produced mixed results. Meaningful shape constraints were obtained by matching the geoid anomaly calculated from the seamount model to the actual mean sea level pattern for some seamounts. Results for other seamounts were poor and possible reasons for the failure are discussed. It is concluded that a computerized seamount detection program for radar altimetry data is feasible, but it will have to be more complex than the present one for fully successful operation.     

Swath bathymetry: principles of operation and an analysis of errors

The principles of swath bathymetry are described, and the main cause of depth error is identified as acoustic interference, particularly from the sea surface. An error analysis is presented which gives the relationship among depth errors, the signal-to-interference ratio, the grazing angle, receiver spacing, and area resolution. It permits a prediction of when its measurement of depth can meet the accuracies required for nautical charting. Ways of reducing multipath interference and of minimizing its effect when it does occur are discussed. Particularly important are area averaging, the use of widely spaced receivers with ambiguities resolved by the vernier technique, and phase tracking for avoiding bias problems     

基于空间交会GPS信号遮挡模型的建模与仿真

GPS应用于空间交会的相对导航具有广泛的应用前景,但两航天器相对运动时,航天器本身及地球曲率对GPS信号的遮挡是影响GPS相对导航可靠性的重要因素。研究了航天器单天线信号遮挡模型的双天线信号遮挡模型,通过数字仿真验证了数学模型的可行性,分析比较了两种数学模型在两航天器不同相对导航间距时GPS信号受遮挡情况,指出双天线相对导航系统相对于单天线相对导航系统性能的优越性。     

A minimum variance unbiased estimator for ocean surface currentsbased on multifrequency microwave radar observations

This paper presents a minimum variance unbiased (MVU) estimator for estimating an ocean surface current using the multifrequency microwave radar technique. In this technique the current information is obtained by finding the difference between the measured phase velocities of some specific surface gravity waves and the phase velocities calculated from the dispersion relation for still water. By defining the problem as a linear estimation problem, we develop an unbiased estimator for the current component along the radar look direction, which has a variance that is inversely proportional to the sum of the squared wavenumbers of the gravity waves used in the measurements. We also study the performance of an MVU vector estimator based on radar observations along two directions. Our analysis shows that the confidence region of this estimator has the shape of an elongated ellipse with semi-axes and orientation which are dependent on the angle between the observation directions, but independent on the true current vector. Furthermore, the theoretical models are thoroughly tested using both simulated and real radar data, and these tests show very good agreement with the model predictions     

Target Classification and Remote Sensing of Ocean Current Shear Using a Dual-Use Multifrequency HF Radar

In this paper, we describe a high-frequency (HF) radar capable of multifrequency operation over the HF band for dual-use application to ship classification and mapping ocean current shear and vector winds. The radar is based on a digital transceiver peripheral component interconnect (PCI) card family that supports antenna arrays of four to 32 elements with a single computer, with larger arrays possible using multiple computers and receiver cards. The radar makes use of broadband loop antennas for receive elements, and a number of different possibilities for transmit antennas, depending on the operating bandwidth desired. An option exists in the choice of monostatic or multistatic operation, the latter providing the ability to use several transmit sites, with all radar echo signal reception and processing conducted at a single master receiver site. As applications for such a multifrequency radar capability, we show measurement and modeling examples of multiple frequency HF radar cross section (RCS) of ships as an approach to ship target classification. Results of using 32 radar frequencies to measure the fine structure in ocean current vertical shear are also shown, providing evidence of one edge of a 1-3-m deep uniform flow masked at the surface by wind-driven current shear in a different direction. Other applications of current-shear measurements, such as vector wind mapping and volumetric current estimation in coastal waters, are also discussed