Interferometric Orbital Tracking of SAR Missions with Large Processing Gain

Abstract:
The performance of a compact baseline interferometer for precise orbital tracking of SAR missions is assessed. An experimental campaign is carried out by tracking non-cooperative telecommunication geostationary satellites. While the main baseline operates in nominal conditions, the reflector of the second slave has been removed in order to compare how the system performs with an important SNR degradation. Due to the large processing gain of the correlator, the quality of the phase measurements remains unaltered. The results demonstrate the robustness of the system. It would be able to track very weak signals such as radar side lobes and telemetry transmissions.