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Radar overlay |
CSIR radar and electronic warfare (EW) researchers announced at an international conference in Edinburgh that they were making available to other members of the radar research community, data acquired during recent radar measurement trials in their research on the detection of small vessels.
Radar detection of small boats is particularly difficult due to the often comparable magnitude of the boat and sea surface radar return.
In recent years, the CSIR has been involved in several projects specifically aimed at the development of an integrated persistent, ubiquitous surveillance system to assist South Africa's forces in curbing weapons trafficking, smuggling, poaching, piracy, illegal immigration and terrorism.
Rian de Wind, CSIR researcher, says in the development of such a system, it is crucial to verify initial modelling and simulation results with actual measured data. CSIR Defence, Peace, Safety and Security subsequently launched a series of measurement trials using its various measurement facilities.
In 2006, the researchers took the CSIR's Fynmeet radar measurement system to Overberg in the Cape to make some actual measurements. This was only the first in a series of such measurement trials - with the next trial taking place in November this year.
"The primary objectives of the field trials are to quantify the dynamics of sea waves in shallow (shoreline) water and in the open sea - under all environmental conditions. In these trials, we are determining radar reflectivity characteristics, quantifing the physical structure, and dynamics of the different classes of small vessels encountered in the South African maritime and the associated radar reflectivity characteristics of these," he says.
The CSIR has decided to share the radar field trial data with other researchers via an information repository on the internet. When registering, users are required to indicate for what purpose they intend using the field data.
"We decided to announce the availability of the data on a dedicated website at the International Conference on Radar Systems in Edinburgh, because some of the most influential researchers in the radar community attend that event. These are the people who will most likely use the data and it was therefore the perfect place and time to announce the availability of the data in electronic and downloadable formats. Ultimately, we hope that this data will benefit radar research in the broad sense," he says.
"The website gives a short description of our research and its purpose. It describes the deployment site and the boats used." From the site, it is possible to register and to download data. "It also lists all the publications reporting on research that made use of these data," explains De Wind.
"As we undertake more measurement trials, the database will grow and hopefully so will the body of knowledge generated," he concludes. To visit the website, go to www.csir.co.za/small_boat_detection.
CSIR researchers who attended the conference also presented papers on the following topics:
- Investigating the effect of a target's time-varying axis of rotation on ISAR image distortion (Yunus Abdul Gaffar and Willem Nel)
- The effects of quantisation on mismatched pulse compression filters designed using L-p norm minimisation (Jacques Cilliers and Johan Smit)
- Analysis of calibrated sea clutter and boat reflectivity data at C- and X-band in South African coastal waters (Dr Paul Herselman in collaboration with Professor CJ Baker, University College London, UK).
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