• SPB leads GTRI winning effort to investigate the application of sparse aperture, distributed radar functionality for spaceborne surveillance under the AFRL TechSat21 program.
• NASA LaRC awards GTRI Aviation Weather Information Requirements Study contract.
• SPB leads GTRI winning effort as part of Walcoff, Inc. team on DARPA's "Sensor, Targeting and Communications Technologies for Air, Surface and Underground Defense" (STC Tech) task order contract.
• The new SPB-developed continuing education course, Modern Synthetic Aperture Imaging, was successfully inaugurated in 1999, and will be held again 7-9 March, 2000 .

For more information, contact Dr. Byron Keel, Head of GTRI/SPB.

• Design and analysis of the signals used to probe the sensor’s environment;
• Modeling of the environment’s response to these signals;
• Design and analysis of algorithms for transforming the raw signals into useful data products; and
• Design and implementation of real-time processors for implementation of the algorithms.

More specifically, the competencies of the SPB staff include:

• Radar and sonar signal processing
• Radar and sonar imaging
• Target detection and classification
• Atmospheric and underwater acoustics
• Guidance, navigation, control, and motion compensation
• Tracking and pointing
• Data compression
• Electromagnetic scattering and phenomenology
• Simulation of sensor systems
• Embedded real-time multiprocessor implementations

Under the NASA LaRC sponsored Aviation Weather Information Requirements Study (AWIN), GTRI is investigating the ability to provide improved weather information (not simply data) to users in the National Airspace System, and to foster the improved usage of this information. While the emphasis of this project is to provide this information to the flight deck, other weather information users in the National Airspace are also considered.

Under the AFRL sponsored Space Missions Using Satellite Clusters program (TechSat21), GTRI is investigating the application of sparse aperture, distributed radar functionality for spaceborne surveillance.  Key aspects of the effort include analytic modeling and concept simulation, error source modeling, performance evaluation and modeling of clutter over a wide range of grazing angles as observed from space.  The initial phase of this work is a four-month proof-of-concept study.

On March 20, 1998, 13 people were killed by a deadly tornado in Hall and White Counties, Georgia, that was not detected in time to issue any warnings.  In the next few weeks, many more people were killed and property damaged in Georgia and neighboring Alabama in a devastating spring tornado season.  In response, Governor Zell Miller of Georgia, working through the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, chartered the Task Force on Warning and Communication to study the response to these events and determine how the State of Georgia could improve the effectiveness of both the detection of severe weather and the dissemination of warnings.  GTRI/SPB staff served on the subcommittee on warning, focusing on the NEXRAD Doppler radar network.  The group identified a number of deficiencies in the radar network and issued a number of recommendations, including one for the formation of a Severe Storm Research Center. The SSRC received initial funding from FEMA and GEMA in February 1999 and is now organizing and initiating its 1999 research program.  Click here for more details.

GTRI has developed an image database software package that enables intelligent searching of databases for pattern recognition and object detection. The algorithms have proven effective in a variety of applications, including SAR image database searching for non-defense applications such as land cover classification, and for defense applications such as ground target detection and identification.  GTRI is teaming with Eastman Kodak to explore commercial applications of the image database software under NASA's EOCAP-SAR funding. The example image shows the result of processing a SAR image for land cover classification.  The blue colors indicate pattern matches that identify pecan orchards, the green colors indicate pattern matches that identify defoliated, but as yet, unpicked cotton fields.Click here for more details.

GTRI/SPB has extensive experience with Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR) imaging, including data collection, advanced image formation algorithms, and image data compression.  Much of this experience has been gained in programs concerned with characterizing the radar cross section of various vehicles, either at GTRI's own Electromagnetic Test and Evaluation Facility or on radar ranges at various sponsor facilities.  In 1997 and 1998, GTRI/SPB collected imagery of 31 different target vehicles to support automatic target recognizer (ATR) training in DARPA's Semi-Automated Image Processing program.  SPB also developed new algorithms for mitigating the differences between airborne and turntable target measurements.

GTRI/SPB participated in a multi-contractor team that developed a real-time onboard signal processor that was installed on the NASA Langley Research Center’s Boeing 737 experimental testbed aircraft.  The processor implemented algorithms for detection and warning of hazardous windshear conditions, and was used for radar, signal, data, and display processing in several field tests. GTRI/SPB assembled the COTS processor hardware, coded the real-time software, and integrated the processor with the rest of the radar and avionics system.  This work was recognized by a NASA Group Achievement Award in 1993.

Space-time adaptive processing (STAP) is a promising technique for countering a number of interference sources that degrade radar detection and angle tracking performance, such as ground clutter, jamming, radome reflections, and terrain-scattered interference. GTRI/SPB is conducting several internal and sponsor-funded programs in STAP processing.  Topics being investigated include affordability tradeoffs between sensor quality and adaptive processing complexity; robust filtering and detection using multi-dimensional sensing of the radar signal environment and non-traditional knowledge sources such as geographical data; improved detection of low observable, low radial velocity targets from airborne, spaceborne and bistatic platforms; multichannel, bistatic STAP; STAP benchmarking; and the impact of nonstationary interference environments on STAP performance.  Click here for more details.

SPB is a branch of the Radar System Division of GTRI’sSensors & Electromagnetic Applications Laboratory. Click the organization chart for an overview of how SPB, RSD, and GTRI fit into the Georgia Tech organization, with links to related sites.

SPB Branch Head      Dr. Byron Keel        770-528-7710        770-528-7728 (FAX)         byron.keel@gtri.gatech.edu

Notwithstanding any language to the contrary, nothing contained herein constitutes nor is is intended to constitute an offer, inducement, promise, or contract of any kind. The data contained herein is for informational purposes only and is not represented to be error free. Any links to non-Georgia Tech information are provided as a courtesy. They are not intended to nor do they constitute an endorsement by the Georgia Institute of Technology of the linked material.