Perimeter surveillance radar (PSR) is a class of radar sensors that monitor activity surrounding or on critical infrastructure areas such as airports, seaports, military installations, national borders, refineries and other critical industry and the like. Such radars are characterized by their ability to detect movement at ground level of targets such as an individual walking or crawling towards a facility. Such radars typically have ranges of several hundred metres to over 10 kilometres.
Alternate technologies include laser-based systems. These have the potential for very high target position accuracy, however they are less effective in the presence of fog and other obscurants.
Characteristics
PSR's usually have the following required characteristics:
*No operator required: The radar autonomously detects movement in a defined area, tracks those targets and raises an alarm if the targets cross into alarm areas.
*Export of target data: The radar not only has its own dedicated display and alarm system, but also outputs data to other systems that form the security network. A typical interface system today would include target data output over Extensible Markup Language (XML) at a useful target data rate (0.1 Hz to 1 Hz).
*Coverage: a radar that covers more area can be potentially more useful than a radar that covers a limited sector. PSRs cover areas between 80° to 360°.
*Resolution: a radar that operates at higher frequencies and with narrower beams will determine target positions most accurately.
*Low false alarm rates: a radar that puts out false targets is at best an irritant and tactically can confuse the security team. A good PSR should have a designed false alarm rate of two or less false alarms per day. (A false alarm should not be confused with a nuisance alarm caused by, for example, an animal).
Characteristics of some perimeter surveillance radar systems:
*Carrier frequencies range from C-band (about 5 GHz) to W band (about 77 GHz).
*Modulation characteristics include CW, FMCW, and pulsed. FMCW based systems typically have very high range resolution, often better than 1 metre.
*Ranges from 300 meters to over 10 km.
*Detection methods include Doppler (requiring movement relative to the transmitter) and clutter mapping (movement in any direction).
*Area coverage rates: from 1 to 10 updates per second.
*Mechanical Movement: Older PSRs rely on rotating antennas while newer designs rely on
Beamforming
Beamforming or spatial filtering is a signal processing technique used in sensor arrays for directional signal transmission or reception. This is achieved by combining elements in an antenna array in such a way that signals at particular angles e ...
technology which requires no moving parts. This may dramatically increase the reliability of the PSR while making the PSR more complex by requiring many receive and/or transmit channels.
Challenges to PSR
Perimeter surveillance radars may operate in areas with high
clutter
Clutter and its derivations may refer to any of the following:
Excessive physical disorder
* Clutter, a confusing, or disorderly, state or collection, and possible symptom of compulsive hoarding
* Clutter (marketing), numerous advertisements, a ...
levels. In the range of frequencies used almost all objects return some reflection from the radar, as does the ground itself. Foliage presents a particular problem as it is both a barrier to the radar energy, as well as an area in which it is difficult to detect a moving target due to the foliage being blown by the wind appearing as multiple moving targets.
To a degree,
Doppler based radar can detect movement in such areas, as long as the component of movement velocity towards or away from the radar is significant enough to generate a signal that overcomes the foliage return signal.
Radar does not have enough resolution to identify one person from another, so cannot be used as a substitute for CCTV. Many PSRs directly interface to control daylight or thermal cameras using a "slew to cue" system to overcome this problem. Total automation may be achieved if the camera uses
analytics.
PSR manufacturers
Perimeter surveillance radar makers include:
Advanced Radar Technologies S.A.wit
ART Midrangehigh resolution ground surveillance radar
Blighter Surveillance Systemswith th
Man portable radar Man-portable radar is a lightweight surveillance radar system that does not require vehicle support to transport or operate. Man-portable radar was developed to introduce radar to remote areas where vehicle support is not feasible.
Examples
PPE PG ...
Blighter B303 radaran
*DMT with the AIMS
Echodyne MESA Technologies Radarswith th
EchoGuard for 3D Security
*
Elta Systems
ELTA Systems Ltd (ELTA) is an Israeli provider of defense products and services specializing in radar, ELINT, COMINT, C4ISTAR, Electronic Warfare, Communication, Autonomous Ground Systems, Intelligence and Cyber products.
ELTA, a group and s ...
EPSIwith PSR-200, PSR-500, PSR-SR, PSR-ESW... high resolution low cost radars
*
FLIR Systems
Teledyne FLIR LLC (an acronym for "forward-looking infrared"), a subsidiary of Teledyne Technologies, specializes in the design and production of thermal imaging cameras and sensors. Its main customers are governments and in 2020, approximately ...
with the R1, R2, R3, R3D, R5, R5D and R20SS
FLIR RADARK&G Spectrumwith SR-0303, SR-3030, SR-4505, and SR-360;
Kelvin Hughes Security Systemswith th
SharpEye SxV radar Magos Systemswith th
SR-250SR-500an
SR-1000high resolution ground surveillance radars.
Micran Surveillance Systemswit
GUARD Security Surveillance Systeman
MRS series radars
*
Navtech RadarNavtech Radar
/ref> with the W200, W500, W350-x and the W800;
Ogier Electronics
with th
Scan-360
low-cost ground surveillance radar.
SpotterRF
with Compact surveillance radar Compact surveillance radar are small lightweight radar systems that have a wide coverage area and are able to track people and vehicles in range and azimuth angle. They weigh less than 10 pounds, consume less than 15 Watts of power and are easily de ...
M600, M600C and M80;
SRC, Inc.
with th
SR Hawk ground surveillance radar
RADESCAN Antidron UMIRS, RU
RADESCAN ground surveillance radar, UMIRS, RU
Rockwell Collins PSR-500
h1>
See also
*Radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...
*Surveillance
Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as c ...
References
{{reflist
External links
Magos Ground Surveillance Radars
Echodyne Corp. MESA Technology Radars
Blighter Surveillance Systems radars
K&G Spectrum
Kelvin Hughes Security radars
Micran Surveillance Systems radars
Navtech Radar Perimeter Surveillance
SpotterRF compact radars
SRC, Inc. ground surveillance radars
Scan-360 low-cost security radar
Radar
Surveillance