High-resolution passive millimeter-wave imaging technologies for reconnaissance and surveillance

This paper addresses the use of high resolution aperture synthesis radiometry for the purpose of reconnaissance and surveillance on an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) platform. A short introduction to the military background for the applicability of this technique is given. The phenomenology of microwave radiometry is shortly introduced and range considerations are outlined. The principles of aperture synthesis are presented and a first design idea based on previous investigations for a low-expense system is given. Based on that the imaging performance of the system is investigated using a typical brightness temperature scene from earlier linescanner measurements at 90GHz. The array thinning, the finite sensitivity, and the impact of non-ideal flight maneuvers are discussed. It is shown, that the low-expense system is able to produce satisfying results for target detection.