A practical approach to polarimetric adaptive target detection in passive radar

Recently, the exploitation of polarimetric diversity was considered as a way to improve target detection capability in passive radar systems. Specifically, it was shown that a locally adaptive Polarimetric - Generalized Likelihood Radio Test (PGLRT) detection scheme might represent an effective solution for passive radar exploiting different signals of opportunity. However, depending on the considered application, it could be highly computationally expensive. The present work presents an alternative lower-cost approach, based on a global adaptation of the polarimetric whitening filter. The proposed scheme is tested against experimental data collected by means of a dual-pol receiving system. The reported analysis shows that it allows comparable performance with respect to the previously introduced approach, especially when operating against scenarios characterized by strong interfering sources.