Multifunctional holographic radar system based on a large strongly thinned self-focused antennas

Abstract

A radar system development for the target stream observations under a strong jamming is discussed, at a system level. It is shown that there exists a number of problems which cannot be solved by traditional radar facilities due to their low spatial resolution and limited energy of the transmitted signal. The well-known methods of space-time processing of a reflected signal, which are called the «fine structure analysis» are also not capable to solve these problems. They must be used in conjunction with the «rude-force» methods based on the utilization of large-sized antennas for transmission and reception.

Some aspects of dynamic synthesis and analysis of above mentioned systems are discussed in this paper. Principles and methods of development of such a system, its interaction with the environment, methods of the wave field processing, as well as methods of their state control are considered. Current performance characteristics and other system parameters are evaluated.

The system based on the use of large-sized strongly thinned array antennas can be a microwave-holographic, radiooptical or multistatic coherent one. A wave field processing in above mentioned systems is similar to that used in microwave holography and consists of two steps: hologram recording and image reconstruction. The mathematical description of the signal processing at the both steps is based on the Kirchhoff-Fresnel diffraction formulae.