Thesis
Advanced radar systems and algorithms for space object localization
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2025
- Thesis identifier
- T17475
- Person Identifier (Local)
- 202091810
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- With the increasing number of space objects, there is a growing need to monitor the geospace, the region surrounding the Earth, to prevent collisions, which would generate additional space debris. Radar can be employed for space situational awareness tasks, specifically for space object localization. While most space situational awareness radar systems are ground-based, with some using radio telescopes as receivers, recent advancements in spaceborne radar could offer more cost-effective solutions. In this context, this thesis investigates the design and signal processing solutions for spaceborne and ground-based radars for space situational awareness. The spaceborne radar operates in a forward scatter configuration, a special bistatic case in which the bistatic angle is approximately 180◦. The system is passive, meaning it exploits signals from third-party sources to perform radar tasks. The proposed design considers the radar mounted on a CubeSat orbiting on a low Earth orbit. As the antenna is the most constraining component of a CubeSat, potentially determining its size, a directivity analysis of various antennas is conducted alongside a radar range equation analysis to identify the most suitable option. Furthermore, the received signals are processed to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio through multiple integration across multiple operating frequencies and to enable accurate target localization, with particular attention to reducing the computational cost of motion parameter estimation. To achieve this, the traditional bank-of-correlators matched filter approach proposed in previous studies is replaced by a novel zoom-in matched filter algorithm coupled with a recurrent neural network classifier. The ground segment is investigated using a long-baseline distributed radar. In this setup, one transmitter and multiple receivers spread across the Earth are considered. Each transmitter- receiver combination forms a bistatic pair. Multiple receivers are employed to combine bistatic measurements and provide more accurate and reliable target localization. The system is first analysed from the perspective of the radar range equation. A processing strategy based on the multiple-input-multiple-output ambiguity function is then introduced to address the challenge of target localization.
- Advisor / supervisor
- Clemente, Carmine
- Vasile, Massimiliano
- Resource Type
- DOI
- Funder
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PDF of thesis T17475 | 2025-09-30 | Public | Download |