Site planning and illuminator variability for DTV-based passive radar

This paper compares results of a simulation study and experimental measurement campaign designed to evaluate the performance of a DTV-based passive radar. The simulations considered a tower-mounted receiver in Springfield, Ohio, and predicted the accuracy of localizing airborne targets using the illuminations of regional transmitters. The predicted coverage area was found to vary with the selection of the propagation loss model used by the simulator. Supporting experiments at the site did not favor any particular model, but showed 10 dB variations in both the direct path and clutter over several hours. These results illustrate the need to accurately model tropospheric radio propagation in passive radar performance predictions.