Discoverer II Space Based Radar Concept DARPATech 2000 Sept 2000 Allan Steinhardt
Outline The Discoverer II Concept New Capabilities Active Electronic Scanned Antenna Space Based Information Processing Mission Utility 00B055.ppt 9/25/00 2
Discoverer II Space Radar Objectives Affordable AESA Spacecraft SAR - 3 Panel 5 X 2.7m each Panel Solar Array Drive Broad Beam Antenna Propulsion Section Solar Arrays Star Camera High Gain Antenna Dual Gimbal Mount Battery Section Battery Radiator Feasibility of GMTI from space Tracking of ground vehicles Dynamically tasked imaging of ground targets Collection of terrain elevation data Show affordability MTI from space MTI Overlaid on SAR Image Culverts (30-50m)
Outline The Discoverer II Concept New Capabilities Electronic Scanned Antenna Space Based Information Processing Mission UtilitY 00B055.ppt 9/25/00 4
Why Moving Target Indication (MTI)? Detect, characterize, and track movers (e.g. critical mobile targets) Wide area cueing filter for other modes /ISR assets Desired Attributes: Cover multiple theaters of interest Birth-to-death tracking High range resolution (HRR) for target classification & tracking High-Res SAR (1 m) 1,000,000km 2 per day 24-Satellite Area Coverage per Day Low-Res SAR 5,700,000km 2 once per day or HRR-GMTI same area 15 times per day 00B055.ppt 9/25/00 5
Why Digital Terrain Elevation Data (DTED)? Provide common grid for sensor data fusion Day/night, all weather Generate accurate feature location data for targeting and other warfighter applications Fusion/Correlation Process Target Mission Image Synthetic SAR Image Terrain Database DTED Absolute TLE (m) 1000 100 10 1 System Threshold and Goal DTED 1 DTED 2 DTED 3 DTED 4 Discoverer Goal DTED 5 3 m Abs. 00B055.ppt 9/25/00 6
Outline The Discoverer II Concept New Capabilities Electronic Scanned Antenna Space Based Information Processing Mission Utility 00B055.ppt 9/25/00 7
Affordable Space Based Radar Active Electronically Scanned Antenna is a key enabler Change look direction without mechanical slew - Simplified satellite bus Affordable AESA requires innovation Array thinning Reduce # modules while retaining scan and beam quality Manufacturing Heavy automation & streamlined testing Adaptive digital radar and signal processing technology Relaxed radar tolerances 00B055.ppt 9/25/00 8
ESA: Space vs. Airborne Airborne Sensor : AMTI Space Sensor : GMTI T/R 1 Amp T/R O T/R Amp Amp T/R NO T/R Technical Challenge: Compactness Solution: High power, small aperture 1 element/(t/r) Technical Challenge: Power drain, long-range, large field of view Solution: Thinned arrays, large aperture, electronic agility Affordable space AESA leads to large, low-power systems: new challenges 00B055.ppt 9/25/00 9
Revolutionary Affordability for Global Surveillance: Satellite Form Factor X X X X Discoverer II Small Aperture Flexible Wideband Light, low-cost, multiple satellite/launch Increased range resolution enables mainbeam rejection Clutter rejection requires Space-Time Adaptive Processing Challenges Mainbeam interference Data adaptive calibration Dispersion mitigation Poor cross-range resolution Key Enablers Sub-band architecture Teraflop-class processing Wideband communications HRR MHT tracker Clutter Target Emerging information technologies enable affordable constellation 00B055.ppt 9/25/00 10
Outline The Discoverer II Concept New Capabilities Electronic Scanned Antenna Space Based Information Processing Mission Utility 00B055.ppt 9/25/00 11
Wideband Digital Processing Enables Relaxed Antenna Specifications Polyphase Filter PGA Packaging Polyphase Filter Test Board FFT FFT Test Board Fabricated 0.25-µm CMOS Process 128-channel, 12-tap Polyphase Filter 6 million transistors, 60K processors 32 GOPS 128-point Complex FFT Processor 3.5 million transistors, 35K processors 23 GOPS Polyphase Channelizer Demonstration Board 00B055.ppt 9/25/00 12
Discoverer II Signal Processing Flow: Tracker Target Reports Tracker Tracks Detector <r 1, D 1, θ 1 > <r 2, D 2, θ 2 > <r 3, D 3, θ 3 > HRR- MHT Poor cross range Tree pruning Bootstrap ATR Road-aided track DTED obscuration, geolocation High PFA SAR clutter edit Range profile edit Power selected training Cross-platform fusion Angle-diverse ATR Road, DFAD alignment Clutter Receiver Noise Targets Tracker compensates for platform stand-off/diversity 00B055.ppt 9/25/00 13
Amplitude Feature-aided Tracking High range resolution allows target deconfliction HRR HR-MTI Range Range Profile Resolution Profile * 12 6 6 10 5 5 8 4 4 6 3 3 4 22 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 100 200 300 0 0 10 10 20 20 30 30 Aspect Angle (deg) Range (m) Range Extents (m) 14 Tank Truck Group 1 10M 5M Group 2 * Results derived from MSTARS collections, DARPA MTE Program, 11/97 00B055.ppt 9/25/00 14
Outline The Discoverer II Concept New Capabilities Electronic Scanned Antenna Space Based Information Processing Mission Utility 00B055.ppt 9/25/00 15
Prospective Strategic Relocatable Targets/Critical Mobile Targets Applications 1 2 3 4 IDENTIFY SCUD OPERATIONAL AREAS (IPB) DE-LIMIT AREAS OF UNCERTAINTY (DTED) IDENTIFY ALL PROSPECTIVE TARGETS. FILTER OUT NON-VEHICLES (SAR & MTI) EXPLOIT SBIRS CUE (IF AVAILABLE) 5 6 IDENTIFY TRACK MOVERS (MTI) CLASSIFY MOVERS (HRR-MTI WITH SAR) 7 8 IDENTIFY HIDE POINTS CONFIRM TARGETS CUE & COMMIT SHOOTERS (MTI, THEN SAR) BDA (SAR & MTI) Too Short (New) Potential TELs Stopped (SAR) X 00B055.ppt 9/25/00 16