Bistatic Doppler shift

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Bistatic Doppler shift is a specific example of the Doppler effect that is observed by a radar or sonar system with a separated transmitter and receiver. The Doppler shift is due to the component of motion of the object in the direction of the transmitter, plus the component of motion of the object in the direction of the receiver. Equivalently, it can be considered as proportional to the rate of change of bistatic range.

In a bistatic radar with wavelength λ, where the distance between transmitter and target is R_tx and distance between receiver and target is R_rx, the received bistatic Doppler shifted frequency is calculated as:

$f = \frac{1}{\lambda}\frac{d}{dt}(R_{tx}+R_{rx})$

Note that objects moving along the line connecting the transmitter and receiver will always have 0 Hz Doppler shift, as will objects moving around an ellipse of constant bistatic range.