Development of CARINA bistatic VHF-band SAR

Abstract

The paper presents results from developing and testing a bistatic SAR system for ground surveillance in the VHF band (25-83 MHz). It is based on two radars developed by FOI: The monostatic LORA system installed in an aircraft and the bistatic and passive CARINA system installed on a helicopter. CARINA is based on direct RF sampling of two receiver channels (2 × 14 bits @ 250 MSPS) together with continuous non-interrupted data storage capability. The system has recently been developed by FOI and is described in detail. System architecture, installation in the helicopter platform and results from early trials in bistatic SAR mode are described. Results show forest clutter can be significantly reduced in bistatic SAR geometries compared to the signature of a small truck (van).