Research Overview of Ground-Based Distributed Coherent Aperture Radar

‍ ‍Ground-based distributed coherent aperture radar （GB-DCAR） is deployed by decentralized multiple ground-based radars， working together to achieve target detection. Both cooperative and non-cooperative cross-platform illumination sources besides radar’s own transmitter can be used， and signal-level fusion processing can be realized. In complex scenarios， traditional monostatic radar is difficult to detect and identify low observable targets， while GB-DCAR aims to solve the above bottleneck problem and realizes the integrated technology of reconnaissance， interference， detection and communication. Therefore， GB-DCAR has been considered as a promising direction of next generation radar. GB-DCAR is a highly complex system involving many factors， so it is necessary to study and explore a reasonable and effective working paradigm. This paper systematically introduces the new trends and technologies of the development of GB-DCAR. An equivalent large-aperture sparse array with high-gain and extremely narrow beams is formed by signal-level fusion processing， enabling more advanced signal processing algorithms to detect and accurately locate various targets. This paper then presents the latest progress and representative achievements of GB-DCAR and discusses the issues and solutions relevant to coherent processing， imaging， anti-jamming， system synchronization and calibration. Finally， future prospects for GB-DCAR are discussed.