Monopulse synthetic aperture radar

A monopulse passive synthetic aperture radar system for fast, high-resolution imaging of ground and/or airborne objects comprising illuminating transmitting means, receiving means covering an entire space sector by a set of non-scanning antenna beams and processing means for processing reflected signals;

• wherein:
• at least one ambient cooperative or non-cooperative source of radio-frequency and/or microwave signals serves as said transmitting means for illuminating said entire space sector;
• said receiving means are arranged as monopulse receiver modules consisting of a set of non-scanning receiving antennas with overlapping antenna patterns in quadrature or multi-axis directions and covering the entire space sector, wherein each receiving antenna is coupled to a monopulse processor for simultaneous multi-axis processing of all signals in receiving chains based on amplitudes, phase and frequency component shifts of signals in said overlapping receiving antennas;
• each receiver chain consists of an analog-to-digital converter and is coupled to said image generator by a digital interface;
• said image generator consists of a quadrature or multi-axis multi-channel processor for simultaneous processing of all signals in receiving chains including amplitude, phase and frequency component shifts of signals in receiving antennas and generating an image including information received from said monopulse processor;
• all receiver chains and processing means are connected with synchronization means;
• and receiving means, said image generator and radar output chain are reconnected by microwave and/or fiber optic digital interface;
• wherein said system performs multi-axis processing of all signals in receiving chains based on amplitudes, phase and frequency component shifts of signals in said overlapping receiving antennas, with each receiving antenna coupled to a separate receiver chain.