Modelling and Simulation of Synchronisation Errors in Multi-Receiver Passive Radar Systems

In multi-receiver passive radar systems, coherent detection assumes accurate synchronisation between receivers. However, achieving this in practice is challenging. By creating a virtual radar environment we can investigate the effect of time, frequency offset and drift in different receiver configurations. Using the Generalised Canonical Correlation Analysis (GCCA) detector, a high performance coherent detector, the effect on localization performance is analysed under controlled conditions. The key output of this work demonstrates that synchronization errors significantly affect localization performance, particularly where the detection performance is relying on coherent detection. Understanding the impact of synchronization errors is crucial for improving and developing future multi-receiver passive radar and distributed beamforming systems.