SAR-GMTI processing with Canada's Radarsat 2 satellite

Space-based radar (SBR) has been proposed for various military and civilian applications, including wide area surveillance and theatre defence. Reliable, slow, ground moving target indication (GMTI) of tanks and jeeps, for example, poses a significant challenge, due to strong clutter returns that occupy most, if not all of the available spectrum. Space-time adaptive processing (STAP) techniques can be used to implement radar signal processors capable of providing the required sub-clutter visibility. Despite extensive research studies, at present no space-based GMTI systems are in operation. Canada and the United States are presently conducting experimental programs that will include the launching of space-based radar systems capable of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and GMTI modes. This paper reports on Canada's Radarsat 2 GMTI mode and provides a preliminary analysis of SAR-GMTI performance based on computer simulations.