Aaron Brandewie and Robert Burkholder
Abstract—Objects in low earth orbit such as CubeSats and the
International Space Station (ISS) move with constant velocity
along a linear trajectory when viewed from a ground-based radar.
The small change in attitude of the object as it flies overhead
permits the generation of an inverse synthetic aperture radar
(ISAR) image. In this paper, Altair’s FEKO™ software is used to
model the monostatic radar scattering from the ISS as a function
of frequency and aspect angle. The computed data is used for
generating a simulated ISAR image from a ground-based radar.
The system design requirements for the radar are calculated from
the radar equation.