Detectability of air targets using bistatic radar based on GPS L5 signals

In this paper we analyze the power budget and calculate the maximum target detection range of a bistatic (BS) radar system, which consists of a transmitter mounted on a satellite of GPS and a receiver located on the Earth´s surface. Theoretical and numerical calculations are presented for air target detection using the GPS L5 signal. Two variants of a BS radar system are considered in this paper. The first of them is concerned with the case when the bistatic angle β is smaller than 140°. This is the classical variant of BS radar. The second variant of a BS system is forward scattering radar (FSR). It is the case when the bistatic angle is near 180°, and the target is located near the transmitter-receiver baseline.