Ground Surveillance Radars (GSRs) can build a virtual wall around facilities or on a border. They provide operators
and agents with much more time to assess, prioritize and apprehend intruders than a traditional fence system. The
extra response time is one of the important features of the wide area surveillance concept, along with added benefits
for both the operators and the response teams. These are described in detail in the paper.
But all GSRs are not alike. There are two primary GSR technologies - Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave
(FMCW) and Pulse Doppler. Most pulse Doppler radars are derivatives of legacy military battlefield radar
technology being applied for wide area surveillance, while a new generation of FMCW radar technology has been
developed for this new type of surveillance, applied to high value site security, airports, military bases, ports and
borders. The purpose of this paper is to explore the benefits of each type of radar for the wide area application.
The history of perimeter protection is based on building fences. That basic concept evolved into detecting activity along
fences using a variety of sensors. Today a wide variety of fiber and wire-based sensors are available to mount on a fence,
and many different types of IR, radar, optical, seismic and acoustic sensors to place along the fence line. Generally some
camera support is provided, with the cameras programmed to point to pre-set locations along the fence. A more robust perimeter protection would consist of wide area sensors with the capability to look out beyond the fence to detect potential intrusion and track intruders. In looking beyond the perimeter, wide area sensors can provide precious time to plan and initiate the appropriate response. In addition, because they sweep a 360-degree circle, the sensors can
provide continued tracking of the intrusion, greatly enhancing the effectiveness and safety of the response team. The new
wide-area concept consists of using modern radar technology for wide area detection of objects which are moving, and
then using the precise location information from the radar to point a camera for assessment. Without having to
continually stare at a bank of video monitors, the operator is presented with the location, direction of travel and
identification and number of potential intruders, all in a matter of seconds. This paper presents the features of this new wide area system, followed by an overview of radar technology. It closes
with a discussion on the benefits of the FMCW topology over Pulse Doppler in security and surveillance applications.
Traditional medium and high PRF Pulse Doppler waveforms suffer from range ambiguities caused by the relatively high PRF. These ambiguities also translate into higher dynamic range requirements which result from having clutter from many Pulse Repetition Intervals (PRI) summed at RF. In order to adequately process out the clutter, it is imperative that the receiver possess enough dynamic range to allow clutter vectors from all range intervals to sum vectorally without any distortion. In addition, it is imperative to insure that any significant clutter is represented in every PRI processed, which usually translates into adding fill pulses to the dwell or processing less pulses in the coherent processor. Wideband step frequency waveforms, traditionally used to obtain high range resolution, have some interesting properties that mitigate some of these problems normally associated with Pulse Doppler waveforms. This paper discusses the use of a wideband stepped frequency waveform for reducing dynamic range, providing some selective range filtering, and reducing the processing speed requirements imposed on the A/D converter and subsequent processing.
The waveform and required signal processing for a new multiband shipboard radar is described and some preliminary test results are presented. The waveform is a high PRF stepped frequency waveform designed to provide coherent gain in the order of 40 dB, clutter rejection in the order of 100 dB, 1 foot range resolution, and single dwell unambiguous range and velocity measurements.
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