Performance Analysis of Ground Target Detection Utilizing Beidou Satellite Reflected Signals

Abstract

This paper presents a method of ground target detection using reflected signals of BeiDou satellites. The phase difference information, which is the output of the phase-lock loop (PLL) in the tracking process, is an important observation in this technique. The geometric relationships between the specular point of different BeiDou satellites and the target are established. In addition, the detection and false alarm probability are also analyzed. In order to verify the reliability of the method, an experiment in the suburb area of Beijing was completed. The target was placed in the coverage area of the left-handed circular polarization (LHCP) antenna for two time periods (10–20 s and 40–55 s). By observing the phase difference in BeiDou reflected signals in the presence of a target, it was found that the changing trend was in good agreement with the target placement time periods. In the second experiment, the target moved east and west at a speed of 0.5 m/s, and the range of motion was 6 m. During the acquisition of the BeiDou reflection signal, the target passed through the antenna 14 times. The performance of target detection with different parameters was observed by extracting in-phase (I) branch component data, phase difference information, and the carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR) of five BeiDou reflected signals. The experimental results allowed three conclusions to be drawn as follows: (1) The target detection performance of the three parameters has a certain relationship with the altitude angle and the azimuth angle of the satellite; (2) target motion direction information can be reflected in the change of the satellite I branch component data; (3) The CNR information of different satellite reflected signals varies greatly when the target moves, which is quite different from that of the first experimental target when it is stationary. Thus, the feasibility of target detection using BeiDou reflection signal was demonstrated through these two experiments.