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US 10,502,821 B2Granted
Radar imaging system
AssigneeQinetiq Limited
InventorsWilliam Nicholas Dawber, Gary Steven Pearson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Some embodiments are directed to a radar imaging system that includes a radar transmitter configured to transmit radar at a target; an aperture including an array of physically independent airborne carriers, each of the carriers configured to receive radar echoes from the target; and a base station, which may be located at ground level, in communication with each of the airborne carriers to receive the radar echoes and determine an image of the target from the received radar echoes.
Claims18
A radar imaging system, comprising:
- a radar transmitter configured to transmit electromagnetic radiation towards a target;
- at least one effective aperture, each of the at least one effective aperture including an array including a plurality of airborne carriers, each of the carriers containing a receiver having an associated antenna element, and being configured to receive radar echoes from the target;
- a base station located remote to the at least one effective aperture, in communication with each of the airborne carriers;
- a locator module including at least three transceiver nodes, each adapted to receive signals from the carriers, and the locator module is configured to triangulate a position of each of the airborne carriers
- a processor module configured to determine a power and phase of the radar echoes received for each airborne carrier, to compensate the phase of the radar echoes received based on the position of each corresponding airborne carrier, and to coherently combine the radar echoes by the application of amplitude and phase weighing to In-Phase and In-Quadrature radar returns from the plurality of airborne carriers after phase compensating for the position of each airborne carrier to obtain a focused image of the target with the airborne carriers, and
- wherein the carriers are physically independent and are adapted to act as a single large effective antenna aperture, the aperture including a combination of the individual antenna elements mounted on each of the carriers, and wherein the carriers are arranged to transmit, to the base station, data relating to the radar echoes received, and the base station being configured to receive the data relating to the radar echoes and determine the image of the target from the data received from the airborne carriers.
3 more elements
A method of generating a radar image of a target, the method comprising:
- receiving, at each of a plurality of physically independent airborne carriers positioned in substantially close proximity to form a large effective antenna aperture including a combination of individual antenna elements mounted on each of the carriers, a plurality of radar echoes from a target;
- digitizing, and wirelessly communicating data derived from the received radar echoes to a base station located remotely from the plurality of airborne carriers;
- and
- processing the data from each of the airborne carriers to generate an image of the target, the processing further including:
- receiving, with a locator module having at least three transceiver nodes, signals from the carriers and triangulating the position of the airborne carrier therefrom,
- determining a power and phase of the radar echoes received for each airborne carrier,
- compensating the phase of the radar echoes received based on the position of each corresponding airborne carrier, and
- coherently combining the radar echoes by the application of amplitude and phase weighing to In-Phase and In-Quadrature radar returns from the plurality of airborne carriers after phase compensating for the position of each airborne carrier to obtain a focused image of the target with the airborne carriers.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.