Bistatic and Stereoscopic Configurations for HF Radar

Abstract

Most HF radars operate in a monostatic or quasi-monostatic configuration. The collocation of transmit and receive facilities simplifies testing and maintenance, reduces demands on communications networks, and enables the use of established and relatively straightforward signal processing and data interpretation techniques. Radars of this type are well-suited to missions such as current mapping, waveheight measurement, and the detection of ships and aircraft. The high scientific, defense, and economic value of the radar products is evident from the fact that hundreds of HF radars are presently in operation, the great majority of them relying on the surface wave mode of propagation, though some systems employ line-of-sight or skywave modalities. Yet, notwithstanding the versatility and proven capabilities of monostatic HF radars, there are some types of observations for which the monostatic geometry renders them less effective. In these cases, one must turn to more general radar configurations, including those that employ a multiplicity of propagation modalities to achieve the desired illumination, scattering selectivity, and echo reception. In this paper, we survey some of the considerations that arise with bistatic HF radar configurations, explore some of the missions for which they are optimal, and describe some practical techniques that can guide their design and deployment.