Contents Passive Radar Research and Development in South Africa Status Update Presenter: Dr. Francois Maasdorp for EW SA, International Conference & Exhibition, Pretoria November 2017
Contents Background on Passive Radar Applications and Benefits Past R&D in South Africa Current & Future R&D in South Africa (CSIR perspective) Development of an FM band Passive Radar Testbed 2
Non-Standardised name for Passive Radar Passive Radar also known as: Passive Coherent Location (PCL) Passive Bistatic Radar (PBR) Piggy Back Radar Covert Radar Green Radar Commensal Radar 3
Radar As we know it Transmit / Receive 4
Bistatic Radar Transmit Receive 5
Passive Radar / Passive Coherent Location Use Broadcasting Tower as transmitter 6 Receive
Benefits and Applications Covert receive only/minimal hardware Not give away own location Cost effective radar receive No RF spectrum license/transmission required 7 Low hardware cost Low life cycle/maintenance cost Highly Mobile receive only/minimal hardware Non-cooperative air/naval platform detection technique Foreseen Applications Gap filling to radar networks (Civil Aviation & Defence) Incl. covering small airdromes Border safeguarding
Passive Radar R&D - South Africa CSIR (Institute Role) University of Cape Town (Academic) University of Pretoria (Academic) Peralex (Industry) Lochtron (Industry) Armscor (Funding) 8
FM Radio Coverage - Southern African Countries 80 km 150 km 9
Past Research Single Site Tracking West Coast, Western Cape, SA (2014) Piketberg FM transmitter Tracking (2-D) Cessna 208 Range and Angle 10
Past Research Multi-Static Tracking Western Cape, SA (2014) Cape Town FM transmitter Detection and tracking (2-D) Boeing like targets Off-line processing Atlantic Rx 11 Kalbaskraal Rx
Past Research Detection Range & Platform recognition Gauteng, SA (2013) Sentech FM Transmitter Detection Ranges Cessna 172 (2000 ft AGL) 12 168km (Bistatic) Boeings 400 km (Bistatic) Target Recognition (towards) Accurately estimate the RPM of a Cessna 172 propeller
CSIR R&D Passive Radar Long Term Test Passive Radar Emerging Technology Significant research at Conferences/Journals since 2010 Yet a lack of market acceptance of this technology to date Lack of long term qualification data CSIR currently developing a Passive Radar Test Bed facility Aim to exploit FM radio (Africa) 13 3 years period
Passive Radar - Test Bed Development 6 Radar Receiver Nodes Geographically separated Range, Doppler, Angle Processing 1 Central Node Target tracking Database Reference Source ATNS ADS-B Connected with high bandwidth capacity links 10 Gbps South African Research Network (SANREN) 14
Area of Deployment O.R. Tambo Airport 15
Passive Radar Node CSIR, DPSS Receiver Reference antenna on a mast Surveillance antennas Processing PC Housing of equipment inside here UPS 16
Passive Radar Node SANSA SO Surveillance antennas Reference antenna Receiver Processing PC Housing of equipment inside here 17
Functionality - Receiver Node 3-channel receiver 1 x Reference channel, 2 x Surveillance channels Real-time GP-GPU based data processing Transform I/Q sample data to target detection data 18 Range, Doppler, Angle Fixed CPI, PFA Stream target detection data (Visualise at central node) Range, Doppler, Angle Signal power per detection Noise floor per detection Weather data Store sampled I/Q data Link down time Process different detection thresholds (PFA), CPIs, etc.
Functionality Central Node Process target detection data Range, Doppler, Angle to target position Data association Target tracking Interface to truth data sensors Primary Surveillance Radar (OR Tambo) Secondary Surveillance Radar (OR Tambo) ADS-B receiver Store all data to database Including weather data 19
Probability of Detection - CSIR 20
Probability of Detection - SANSA 21
Joint Probability of Detection CSIR&SANSA 22
Joint Tracking Density CSIR & SANSA 23
Future - FM Based Passive Radar Long Term Test FORESEEN for YEAR 3 ending March 2019 6 Node FM based Passive Radar Infrastructure Central Node 2/3-D Tracking Database and statistics generation Web based server for data sharing Add DVB-T2 Illuminator to support FM/DVB-T2 data fusion Benefit from increased range resolution Cooperative platform trials for 6 nodes 24
Thank you Francois Maasdorp (fmaasdorp@csir.co.za)