Over the Horizon Maritime Surveillance Capability of DVB-T Based Passive Radar

In this paper we explore the maritime surveillance capabilities of the Digital Video Broadcasting Terrestrial (DVB-T) based Passive Bistatic Radar. Specifically we investigate the possibility to detect and localize vessels beyond the territorial waters since this represents a valuable characteristic for border security applications. The results are reported for the extended data acquisition campaign carried out in Leghorn (Italy). The low carrier frequency of the exploited waveforms is experimentally shown to allow maritime target detection at a distance from the coast much greater than the normal line-of-sight horizon.