SNR Enhancement of Back Scattering Signals for Bistatic Radar Based on BeiDou GEO Satellites

Abstract

Using scattering signals of the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) for target detection has become one of the research hotspots. This technology faces the difficulty of low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) target echoes. Since BeiDou geostationary orbit (GEO) satellites provide the opportunity to form a bistatic radar with some advantages, such as fixed coverage area and quasi monostatic configuration to avoid the interference from the direct signals, the target echoes may have regular phases that are beneficial to SNR enhancement. This study uses BeiDou GEO satellites and ground fixed receivers to form a bistatic radar and analyzes the phase changes in the reflected signal caused by the target, then gives two methods for SNR enhancement corresponding to two applications: deformation monitoring and ship detection. This paper first introduces the basic signal processing including the intermediate frequency (IF) signal collector and the range compression in the software receiver, then describes the basic SNR enhancement method, i.e., increasing coherence integration time (CIT), and shows its limitation by two target cases: static metal reflector on the land and ships in the water. After that, this study provides an improved SNR enhancement method based on Doppler and range compensation in the moving ship detection case. The experiment shows that by the SNR enhancement, the SNRs of target echo signals in range/Doppler domain increase more than 4 dB on average. This study also demonstrates the bistatic radar’s potential for monitoring surface deformation.