GPS Bistatic Radar Measurements of Aircraft Altitude and Ground Objects with a Software Receiver

Eric Vinande, Dennis Akos, Dallas Masters, Penina Axelrad, Stephan Esterhuizen

Abstract:	The GPS bistatic radar concept exploits the differences between direct and ground reflected signals received from one or more GPS satellites to aid in navigation or for remote sensing of the surface or transmission medium. This paper provides an overview of an implementation of the technique using a MATLAB-based software receiver and presents example results from an overland flight test. The sample data set was collected during a twenty minute segment of a flight test performed with a NASA Gulfstream V on 20-August-2004. Raw GPS data samples were recorded at 16 MHz from zenith- and nadirpointing GPS antennas through a custom RF front end and data logger. These samples were post-processed using C/A code software GPS receiver techniques. The bistatic radar measurements are converted to a height above ground level and reflected signal-to-noise ratio. The height measurements are found to follow the trends computed based on receiver solved for height and digital elevations. Signal power is highly correlated with ground type with water returns producing the highest power reflections followed by large man made objects.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 61st Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (2005) June 27 - 29, 2005 Royal Sonesta Hotel Cambridge, MA
Pages:	528 - 534
Cite this article:	Vinande, Eric, Akos, Dennis, Masters, Dallas, Axelrad, Penina, Esterhuizen, Stephan, "GPS Bistatic Radar Measurements of Aircraft Altitude and Ground Objects with a Software Receiver," Proceedings of the 61st Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (2005), Cambridge, MA, June 2005, pp. 528-534.
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