Current Activities and Future ISAR Imaging Perspectives for SSA with TIRA

This paper discusses the advancements in Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR) technology for Space Situational Awareness (SSA) at the Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques FHR. It highlights the current capabilities of the TIRA system, which integrates L-band and Ku-band radars for simultaneous tracking and imaging of satellites and space debris. The paper details algorithmic improvements, high-resolution imaging using the new Ka-band radar, and real-time processing techniques utilizing GPUs. Additionally, it explores bistatic measurements to enhance line-of-sight diversity and polarimetric methods to improve object characterization. These developments aim to enhance the monitoring of space debris and support mission analysis through improved image quality and resolution. As this paper should be seen as a review, we show the development within the four different aspects mentioned.