Position and orientation estimation of two airborne platforms towards each other

The interest in bi- and multistatic radar has been growing over the last years as they offer various advantages. For instance the transmitter and receiver can easily be separated and therefore the survivability can be enhanced by deploying the transmitter further away from the scene. Bistatic radar can provide a cost effective solution as the transmitter and receiver can be built without the cost driving transmit/receive-modules. Beyond this, with large baselines it is likely to increase the signature from stealthy objects. Another interesting aspect of bistatic imaging radar is the reduced dynamic range of difficult imaging environments such as urban ones. However, besides the benefits of bi- and multistatic radar one has to solve several technical problems [1] - such as the synchronisation and determining the relative position and orientation of both platforms towards each other. This paper discusses a method which allows determining these two fundamental parameters of an airborne bistatic SAR system and presents first simulations result, which confirms the method.