Various Sensors Aboard UAVs

Abstract : In order to deal with all possible UAV imaging sensors, we better choose the example of a recently introduced UAV: the General Atomics Predator UAV. The Predator sensor payload includes an EO (Electro-Optical) suite, a Ku-band SAR sensor, Ku-band and UHF-band satellite communications (SATCOM), a C-band light-of-sight data link, and a GPS/INS navigator. The Predator's SAR sensor is the Northrop Grumman (Westinghouse) Tactical Endurance Synthetic Aperture Radar ( TESAR). TESAR provides continuous, near real time strip-map transmitted imagery over an 800 meter swath at slant ranges up to 11km. Maximum data rate is 500,000 pixels per second. The target resolution is O.3meters. TESAR weight and power consumption are 80kg and 1200W respectively. A lighter weight, lower cost SAR is currently in development for Predator.