Doppler-based passive radar for air traffic monitoring
Tolonen, Miika (2026-08-14)
Väitöskirja
14.08.2026
Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT
Acta Universitatis Lappeenrantaensis
School of Engineering Science
School of Engineering Science, Laskennallinen tekniikka
Kaikki oikeudet pidätetään.
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In reference to IEEE copyrighted material which is used with permission in this thesis, the IEEE does not endorse any of Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT's products or services. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. If interested in reprinting/republishing IEEE copyrighted material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution, please go to http://www.ieee.org/publications_ standards/publications/rights/rights_link.html to learn how to obtain a License from RightsLink.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-412-495-9
https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-412-495-9
Kuvaus
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Tiivistelmä
The human mind is curious about knowing what is going on in the world. This has been a driving force for last more than 100 years in radar development. Digital transformation and increased processing capability have opened the possibility of building multistatic passive radars. Passive radar can exploit multiple receivers and transmitter networks with different signal waveforms. Passive radar systems have enabled the detection of targets that were difficult to detect with traditional radars. This is because they differ in the measurement geometry and frequency used.
In this thesis, the VHF passive radar system is built in Eastern Finland. The radar exploits Doppler-only information, which is a challenging tracking method. Doppler indicates the speed of the target movement and cannot be used to uniquely determine location. Because of this, track initialization is often ambiguous. The direction of arrival information can be used to cancel ambiguity, which helps the track initialization accuracy far beyond the receiver network.
The passive radar system was built with very low capital investment. The system showed that even ballistic missiles can be detected and long-distance air surveillance beyond the receiver network is possible. The receivers detected almost all flights within the 200 km circle. This was verified with reference data from Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) information. The main focus of the research was to develop the track initialization method for Doppler-only passive radar within outside the receiver network, and its accuracy was determined using a large number of track initializations. The receiver network contained directional antennas that can provide binary direction of arrival information; but this was not enough for the accuracy, and a more precise direction of arrival information was simulated to complement the study.
In this thesis, the VHF passive radar system is built in Eastern Finland. The radar exploits Doppler-only information, which is a challenging tracking method. Doppler indicates the speed of the target movement and cannot be used to uniquely determine location. Because of this, track initialization is often ambiguous. The direction of arrival information can be used to cancel ambiguity, which helps the track initialization accuracy far beyond the receiver network.
The passive radar system was built with very low capital investment. The system showed that even ballistic missiles can be detected and long-distance air surveillance beyond the receiver network is possible. The receivers detected almost all flights within the 200 km circle. This was verified with reference data from Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) information. The main focus of the research was to develop the track initialization method for Doppler-only passive radar within outside the receiver network, and its accuracy was determined using a large number of track initializations. The receiver network contained directional antennas that can provide binary direction of arrival information; but this was not enough for the accuracy, and a more precise direction of arrival information was simulated to complement the study.
Kokoelmat
- Väitöskirjat [1219]