Radar Target Detection and Map-Matching Algorithm Studies

Results of a study of adaptive threshold target detection and map-matching algorithms are presented. Log threshold processing is shown to be preferred over linear threshold processing when the clutter data surrounding the target cell is contaminated by other targets, decoy corner reflectors, or bright clutter cells. Whereas previous studies have resorted to extensive Monte-Carlo simulations of log threshold algorithms, the results were obtained using a novel analytical approach based upon Parseval's theorem.     

Dwelltime Minimization for Radar Target Detection in the Clear

Consider the design of a minimum dwelltime set of coherent, range-unambiguous pulse bursts that will provide a specified target detection performance in a clutter-free ("clear") range interval [Rmin,Rmax]. Practical procedures are presented here for finding these optimal waveform sets versus Rmax/Rmin, subject to a peak transmit power constraint. It is always possible to design a multiple-PRF clear mode that achieves the same effective use of energy as a single-PRF waveform with a 33 percent duty ratio. Slightly higher effective duty ratios can be achieved if the radar is capable of transmitting and processing two interleaved pulse bursts at the same PRF.     

Some Properties and Effects of Reverberation in Acoustic Surveillance

Following the work of Van Trees,[1] the effect of wide-sense stationary clutter on signal detectability with a matched filter is determined. The improvement to be gained by a high time-bandwidth product in the transmitted waveform for the detection of low-velocity targets is clearly shown. The additional noise contributed by the clutter is reduced by a factor equal to the time-bandwidth product. This reducing effect occurs provided that the transmitted waveform is adjusted properly. The optimum transmitted waveform for detection of low-velocity targets turns out to be one whose energy density spectrum is flat over the bandwidth of interest. This derivation is made by a simple application of Schwarz's inequality rather than the application of the calculus of variations that was done by Manasse.[14] Computations were made of the loss encountered by a narrow-band single-frequency waveform and by a wide-band linear FM waveform, each used in a matched-filter detector. The contrast is especially marked for very low target speeds where the narrow-band waveform is very bad. Its loss drops off sharply with target speed while the loss of the wide-band waveform drops off very slowly in comparison. Beyond a certain small target speed, the narrow-band loss is negligible. However, with enough bandwidth, the wide-band waveform can be made to have acceptable loss at all target speeds.     

Bayesian Detection of Targets of Unknown Location

In this paper the array detection problem for certain deterministic signals in spatially uncorrelated Gaussian noise is formulated in Bayesian terms and the required likelihood ratios and resulting performance characteristics are obtained. Primary emphasis is on detection of targets of unknown spatial location using a likelihood ratio approach, with the target location treated as a random parameter, rather than an estimator-correlator approach. The tradeoff among array parameters and signal parameters is demonstrated. It is shown that the dominant uncertainty affecting detection performance seems to be that of location when compared with uncertainty on energy and/or phase.     

MSK and Offset QPSK Modulation with Bandlimiting Filters

It is considered by some that minimum shift keying (MSK) is spectrally more efficient than quaternary phase-shift keying/offset quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK/OQPSK). An analytical method is presented here for determining the detection efficiencies of MSK and QPSK/OQPSK when the constant-envelope signal is passed through a set of filters and when the resulting signal is corrupted by Gaussian noise. The detection efficiency of MSK is compared with that of QPSK/OQPSK when a four-pole Butterworth filter is used as a transmit filter and for two different receive filter functions. When the two-sided 3-dB bandwidth of the transmit filter is between approximately 1.00/T and 1.50/T, it is shown that the detection efficiency of MSK is not substantially different from that of QPSK/OQPSK. For more severe bandlimiting of the signal, the performance of MSK is shown to be inferior to that of QPSK/OQPSK. It is, therefore, concluded that MSK does not have significantly better detection efficiency when the effect of bandlimiting filters is taken into account.     

Performance Analysis of a Target Detection System Using Infrared Imagery

The automatic detection of targets in cluttered infrared imagery is considered. The environment for the problem is that of a "fire-and-forget" weapon, and the mission philosophy for such a weapon dictates that the weapon has to find one and only one target in the automatic detection phase. A detection system that meets this requirement is presented. The system uses techniques of image processing and pattern recognition, with the extension that ranking methods are used instead of thresholds to accommodate the requirement of finding one and only one target. A probability model of the system is developed to determine the system performance as a function of throughput and expressions derived for the probability that the object chosen by the system as the target is actually a target. In order to validate the theoretical results, the actual performance of the detection system on a database of 68 infrared images is determined and compared with the predicted performance of the system. It is shown that there is good correspondence between the empirical results and the theoretical performance.     

Maximum-Likelihood Detection of Unresolved Radar Targets and Multipath

Interference in the form of multipath or uncooperative targets can seriously degrade the angle-of-arrival estimation accuracy of mutiplebeam processors. In this paper, the generalized likelihood ratio test is used to derive a test to detect the presence of interference for multiple beam processors. The detector performance is then analyzed in detail with respect to its dependence on signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-interference ration (SIR), and on the relative phase between the target and interfering signals. It is shown that good detection performance can be obtained unless the phase difference between the target and interference signals is either in or out of phase.     

An Upper Bound on Detection Probability for Fluctuating Signals

In the theory of signal detectability, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), defined as the quotient of the average received signal energy and the spectral density of the white Gaussian noise, is a fundamental parameter. For a signal which is exactly known, or known except for a random phase, this ratio uniquely defines the detection performance which can be achieved with a matched filter receiver. However, when the signal amplitude is a random parameter, the detection performance is changed and must be determined from the probability density function (pdf) of the amplitude. Relative to the case of a constant signal amplitude, such signal amplitude fluctuation usually degrades performance when a high probability of detection (Pd) is required, but improves performance at low values of Pd; the corresponding change in the required SNR is the so-called signal fluctuation loss Lf. Thus, since Lf in some cases represents an improvement in performance for low values of Pd, a question of at least theoretical interest is: how large might this improvement be, when the class of all signal amplitude pdf's is considered. The solution, presented here, results in a lower bound on the signal fluctuation loss Lf as a function of Pd, or equivalently an upper bound on Pd as a function of SNR. The corresponding most favorable pdf was determined using the Lagrange multiplier technique and results of a numerical maximization are included to provide insight into the general properties of the solution.     

Radiometric detection of spread-spectrum signals in noise ofuncertain power

The standard analysis of the radiometric detectability of a spread-spectrum signal assumes a background of stationary, white Gaussian noise whose power spectral density can be measured very accurately. This assumption yields a fairly high probability of interception, even for signals of short duration. By explicitly considering the effect of uncertain knowledge of the noise power density, it is demonstrated that detection of these signals by a wideband radiometer can be considerably more difficult in practice than is indicated by the standard result. Worst-case performance bounds are provided as a function of input signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), time-bandwidth (TW) product and peak-to-peak noise uncertainty. The results are illustrated graphically for a number of situations of interest. It is also shown that asymptotically, as the TW product becomes large, the SNR required for detection becomes a function of noise uncertainty only and is independent of the detection parameters and the observation interval     

Multiplier Offset Voltages in Adaptive Arrays

The effects of multiplier offset voltages in adaptive arrays are examined. Multiplier offset voltages arise when active circuits are used to implement the error-by-signal multipliers required in an array based on the LMS algorithm. These offset voltages are known from experimental work to have a strong effect on array performance. It is first shown how multiplier offset voltages may be included in the differential equations for the array weights. Then their effect on weight behavior is studied. It is found that the offset voltages affect the final values of the weights, but not the time constants. Furthermore, the effect they have is influenced by the amount of element noise in the array. An adequate amount of noise is necessary to minimize weight errors due to offset voltages. An example is treated to show the effect of offset voltages on the final array weights and the output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). With offset voltages present, it is found that there is a maximum SNR that can be obtained from the array. A specific input SNR is required to obtain this maximum output SNR. Finally, it is shown that a finite operating range for the weights places a further restriction on the acceptable values of offset voltages and noise.     

Detection of a Distributed Target

The influence of increasing range resolution on the detectability of targets with dimensions greater than the resolution cell is studied. An N-cell target model is assumed, which contains k reflecting cells, each reflecting independently according to the same Rayleigh amplitude distribution. It will be referred to as the (N,k) target. Detection based on one transmitted pulse is performed against a background of white normal noise. Detection in stationary clutter is also considered. The optimum detector is obtained but, in view of its complexity, the performance of a simpler detector, the square-law envelope detector with linear integrator (SLEDLI), is analyzed, and a formula for the probability of detection is obtained. Graphs are presented which show the probability of detection as a function of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for various values of N k, and false alarm probability. For N/k not too large it is shown that the SLEDLI is near optimum.     

Loss in Single-Channel MTI with Post-Detection Integration

The detection performance of a single-channel MTI receiver with post-detection integration, for a Swerling I target, has been evaluated by a Monte Carlo simulation. It is shown that a fairly good approximation is obtained by applying the ?effective number of independent integrated samples? to the standard detection curves. The ?I-only? loss is about 2 dB for integration of more than 20 pulses; thus this receiver is acceptable if implementation constraints dictate it.     

针对雷达LPI波形验证的目标RCS估算

根据某型雷达低截获概率波形设计的需要,分析了雷达探测目标的高频散射机理,并运用物理光学法、等效电磁流法计算了约定目标在不同姿态下和不同电磁波频率照射下的RCS值,从而为验证雷达波形在能探测到目标情况下的LPI性能提供了支撑。实验结果表明,基于电磁场理论的目标RCS估算方法是研究雷达LPI波形的一种有效工具,方法也适合于其他领域RCS估算的需要。     

A Multistage Processing Algorithm for Disturbance Removal and Target Detection in Passive Bistatic Radar

The paper examines the problem of cancellation of direct signal, multipath and clutter echoes in passive bistatic radar (PBR). This problem is exacerbated as the transmitted waveform is not under control of the radar designer and the sidelobes of the ambiguity function can mask targets including those displaced in either (or both) range and Doppler from the disturbance. A novel multistage approach is developed for disturbance cancellation and target detection based on projections of the received signal in a subspace orthogonal to both the disturbance and previously detected targets. The resulting algorithm is shown to be effective against typical simulated scenarios with a limited number of stages, and a version with computational savings is also introduced. Finally its effectiveness is demonstrated with the application to real data acquired with an experimental VHF PBR system.     

Asymptotic distribution of the conditional signal-to-noise ratio in an eigenanalysis-based adaptive array

The statistical characterization of the conditioned signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the sample matrix inversion (SMI) method has been known for some time. An eigenanalysis-based detection method, referred to as the eigencanceler, has been shown to be a useful alternative to SMI, when the interference has low rank. In this work, the density function of the conditioned SNR is developed for the eigencanceler. The development is based on the asymptotic expansion of the distribution of the principal components of the covariance matrix. It is shown that, unlike the SMI method, the eigencanceler yields a conditional SNR distribution that is dependent on the covariance matrix, It is further shown that simpler, covariance matrix-independent approximations can be found for the large interference-to-noise case. The new distribution is shown to be in good agreement with the numerical data obtained from simulations.     

Analysis of Min-Norm and MUSIC with arbitrary array geometry

A nonasymptotic performance comparison is presented between the Min-Norm and MUSIC algorithms for estimating the directions of arrival of narrowband plane waves impinging on an array of sensors. The analysis is based on a finite amount of sensor data. The analysis makes the assumption of high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and it applies to arrays of arbitrary geometry. It is shown that Min-Norm can be expressed as a certain data-dependent weighted MUSIC algorithm, and that this relationship allows a unified performance comparison. It is also shown that the variances of the estimated directions-of-arrival from the MUSIC algorithm are always smaller than those of the Min-Norm algorithm at high SNR when both algorithms employ a numerical search procedure to obtain the estimates     

自适应的光纤布拉格光栅图像寻峰算法

根据实际光谱特征, 提出了自适应的光纤布拉格光栅图像寻峰算法。针对 不同环境物理场及噪声分布下的光栅谱型,该算法能自动检测光谱的带宽和信噪比,自 适应地调整算法的高斯模板带宽大小,提高谱型匹配及滤波效果,从而提高寻峰精度。 将该算法与高斯拟合法、质心法进行对比,分析了其在不同噪声大小及非均匀温度场分 布下光纤布拉格光栅反射光谱的寻峰精度。理论仿真及实际寻峰结果表明,该寻峰算法 具有较强的抗噪能力及谱型适应性,较质心法、高斯拟合法具有显著优势。     

Analysis of multiframe target detection using pixel statistics

Current track-before-detect (TBD) algorithms are developed and analyzed using a path statistic for each potential object trajectory. However this path statistic does not characterize overall performance gain. We propose a pixel-based statistic. This allows the TBD approach to be characterized as an image enhancement algorithm with detection gains compared with single frame detections. It is shown that for the TBD approach to have superior detection over single frame detection the target signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) must be greater than a threshold SNR in order to overcome the uncertainty in the target path. Tradeoffs are made for a class of velocity constrained target paths in terms of the detection gain with respect to the maximum target velocity and number of frames integrated     

Antenna array beam steering using time-varying weights

The author presents a new technique of steering an array antenna by introducing time-varying phase weights. It is shown that the technique is equivalent to placing a linear phase and linear frequency offset across the array when transmitting a linear frequency modulated (LFM) waveform. The technique reduces array dispersion and increases the operating bandwidth. An element level signal generator is presented as a possible way of implementing the time-varying weights. A possible array implementation is also shown.<>