Aircraft detection by a Ground-based Passive Interferometric Microwave Sensor (PIMS)

The critical advantage of passive microwave imaging is that it can be used in all-day and in low visibility conditions, such as hazes, fogs, clouds, smokes, and sandstorms. In this article, the ground-based passive interferometric microwave sensor (PIMS) is proposed to detect civil aircrafts, especially in low visibility conditions. The fundamental of civil aircraft detection by a ground-based PIMS is introduced and analyzed. Numerical simulations are performed to assess its feasibility and detection performance, and the impact of the low visibility weather is analyzed and discussed. To verify the practicability of civil aircraft detection by the ground-based PIMS, a series of experiments have been performed by a ground-based X-band PIMS, and a data processing procedure is introduced, which contains a target detection algorithm. Experimental results have demonstrated that the civil aircrafts can be accurately detected and consecutively tracked by the ground-based PIMS using the target detection algorithm. Meanwhile, a mirrored TB phenomenon, the TB change, and an application scheme are analyzed and discussed. As a conclusion, the ground-based PIMS can be considered as a powerful complementary tool for civil aircraft detection.