Ship Detection by an Airborne Passive Interferometric Microwave Sensor (PIMS)

Ship detection is important for a wide range of applications. In this article, an airborne passive interferometric microwave sensor (PIMS) is proposed as a powerful complementary tool for ship detection. The fundamental of ship detection by the airborne PIMS is introduced. A specification called “the detection factor” is addressed to quantitatively assess the performance of the airborne PIMS for ship detection. The detection probability is discussed and addressed based on the constant false-alarm rate (CFAR). Numerical simulations are performed to demonstrate the feasibility of ship detection by the airborne PIMS. The impacts of the atmosphere and the sea wind on the performance of the airborne PIMS for ship detection are also addressed in terms of theoretical analyses and numerical simulations. The airborne experiments are also carried out by an X-band PIMS to verify the practicability of ship detection by the airborne PIMS in a sunny weather and a cloudy weather. The data processing procedure and a ship detection algorithm in the experiments are introduced. The airborne experimental results reveal that the ships can be effectively detected and tracked by the airborne X-band PIMS in a sunny weather and a cloudy weather. It demonstrates the practicability of ship detection by the airborne PIMS. The ship detection probability is also analyzed, which agrees well with the theoretical detection probability.