A novel signal processing approach for LEO space debris based on a fence-type space surveillance radar system

The increase in space debris can seriously threaten regular activities in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) environment. Therefore, it is necessary to develop robust, efficient and reliable techniques to understand the potential motions of the LEO debris. In this paper, we propose a novel signal processing approach to detect and estimate the motions of LEO space debris that is based on a fence-type space surveillance radar system. Because of the sparse distribution of the orbiting debris through the fence in our observations, we formulate the signal detection and the motion parameter estimation as a sparse signal reconstruction problem with respect to an over-complete dictionary. Moreover, we propose a new scheme to reduce the size of the original over-complete dictionary without the loss of the important information. This new scheme is based on a careful analysis of the relations between the acceleration and the directions of arrival for the corresponding LEO space debris. Our simulation results show that the proposed approach can achieve extremely good performance in terms of the accuracy for detection and estimation. Furthermore, our simulation results demonstrate the robustness of the approach in scenarios with a low Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) and the super-resolution properties. We hope our signal processing approach can stimulate further work on monitoring LEO space debris. 2012 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.