Exploitation of Long Coherent Integration Times to Improve Drone Detection in DVB-S based Passive Radar

In this paper, we consider the exploitation of long coherent integration times for improving the detection of small drones in a DVB-S based Passive Radar (PR). In fact, since these low-flying objects are characterized by very small RCS values, their detection is challenging especially when using DVB-S signals as source of opportunity, typically received with low power levels. In this work, in order to benefit from the use of extended coherent integration times, the target range and Doppler migration effects have been properly compensated. Then, the effectiveness of the adopted detection scheme has been tested against real data collected by a multi-polarimetric DVB-S based PR receiver developed at Sapienza University of Rome. The reported results show that the coherent integration time can be increased up to a few seconds thus improving the drone detection capability of the considered system.