An independent researcher has discovered that certain types of military radars can be detected from space. Harel Dan , a self-described “geodata junkie," realized that radar waves generated by the U.S.-made Patriot missile system become visible when viewed from a satellite radar system, pinpointing their location.

In a post on Medium , Dan describes working with data from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1 satellite constellation . The two satellites that make up Sentinel-1 use synthetic aperture radar to image the entire Earth every six days, transmitting the data to ground stations in Italy, Spain, and Norway. The data is freely available on the internet for anyone to use as they choose.

U.S.-made Patriot missile system become visible when viewed from a satellite radar system

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a unique type of radar used to create 2D or even limited 3D images of objects and used primarily in the earth sciences field to track natural resources, pollution, vegetation growth, and other surface features. SAR, with its ability to image through clouds, can produce imagery when optical sensors cannot, making it a good fit for satellite-based sensor platforms. Although SAR has military applications , the Sentinel-1 constellation is a dedicated civilian satellite platform. The Sentinel-1 system operates in the IEEE C frequency band.

Dan writes how, using Sentinel-1 data, he made a surprising discovery: the AN/MPQ-53/65 radar at the heart of the Patriot missile system creates visible interference waves in the SAR data, making blurry Xs that mark the precise location of the radars.

The AN/MPQ-53/65 is a multi-function radar that performs multiple roles. While the older HAWK surface to air missile system required up to four radars to operate, the AN/MPQ-53/65 combines all the functions into a single radar unit that operates in NATO’s G and H bands, otherwise known as the C band.

Patriot isn’t the only system detectable by SAR data. The 96L6E (NATO’s unflattering nickname: “Cheese Board”) early warning and acquisition radar used by Russia’s S-300 and newer S-400 long-range surface to air missile systems also operates in the C band and should show up using Dan’s analytical method. The 96L6E is only part of the S-300/S-400 system, with the 96N2E (“Grave Stone”) steering the actual missiles. Not much is known about Chinese radar systems, but if they were "inspired" by U.S. or Russian radar systems they too could operate in the C band, particularly the HQ-9 surface-to-air missile system.

Source: Harel Dan

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