World first: how Chinese plane radar tracks moving targets without breaking radio silence
Two unassuming Cessna-208 Caravan aircraft flew in formation, separated by hundreds of metres in altitude. One emitted
radar signals ; the other, flying lower, remained utterly silent, passively gathering echoes.
Far ahead below, three vehicles raced across undulating terrain, dense with vegetation and scattered structures – a scene designed to hide moving targets in a storm of background clutter.
Radar screens showed only snowlike noise, as traditional filtering methods struggled. Then, a
technological miracle unfolded.
On May 12, China's prestigious Journal of Radars unveiled a landmark study led by award-winning radar scientist Li Zhongyu with the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in Chengdu, Sichuan province.
Their innovation – a '
space -time decoupling two-channel clutter cancellation method' – enabled the silent Cessna to detect all three moving vehicles with crystal clarity.
As soon as the new tech activated, the screen cleared without a speck of noise, as shown by images in the paper.
Detecting moving targets with bistatic airborne radar, has long been a nightmare because of clutter caused by reflections from land, sea or buildings.
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