High-Resolution Imaging of Tropospheric Radio Scatterers

A two-dimensional matched filter technique is described for processing ing the signal from a pulsed coherent troposcatter link to obtain high crosspath resolution "maps" showing the relative positions of individual scatterers. For a typical tropolink (station displacement 200 km; midpath beam halfwidth 2 km; wavelength 0.3 meters) crosspath resolution is about 4.5 meters under perfect conditions. Vertical resolution is inversely proportional to scatterer height, but even for wide bandwidth signals is never better than hundreds of meters. Slight velocity mismatches between the signal and filter degrade crosspath resolution considerably so that the scatterers' velocity must be known accurately a priori. Crosspath resolution is relatively insensitive to mismatch in signal and filter record lengths. Random fluctuations of the velocity of a scatterer seriously degrade crosspath resolution. For the typical tropolink parameters and with a 10 m/s scatterer crosspath velocity and a 0.2 m/s standard deviation ion fluctuation the crosspath resolution degrades by an order of magnitude. It is concluded that the matched filter imaging scheme will produce images of individual scatterers if specific atmospheric conditions ions exist. The best results are obtained if the received signal comes from a single scattering layer at a known height, with scatterers moving at a known constant horizontal velocity, with no along-path or vertical components. Such a layer would be observed during night time or early morning when convective and mixing processes are at a minimum.     

Radar Partial Coherence Theory: An Introduction

The nature of physical phenomena is such that scattering from portions of an object, a number of objects, or clutter, is not completely unrelated; the underlying environment causes some degree of order in the phenomenon. Radar partial coherence theory describes a structure for the general target, or clutter, and its relationship to radar cross section, waveform coding, and the radar output signal. The clutter ambiguity function is introduced for extended bodies and embraces the (Woodward) ambiguity function for a point target. Due to nonlinear effects caused by partial coherence within the general target, radar signals and targets are formulated in terms of mutual coherence functions. The basic quantities describing the radar output are 1) the radar mutual coherence function (formulated in terms of the radar waveform) and 2) the target mutual coherence function which depends upon target properties, physical environment, and viewing aspect. Random noise (independent point scatterers) and partially coherent portions of reflecting bodies are made accountable in the theory. Partial coherence effects are treated as patches of reflected energy: self-coherent energy patches plus mutually coherent energy among the patches.     

Spatially distributed target detection in non-Gaussian clutter

Two detection schemes for the detection of a spatially distributed, Doppler-shifted target in non-Gaussian clutter are developed. The non-Gaussian clutter is modeled as a spherically invariant random vector (SIRV) distribution. For the first detector, called the non-scatterer density dependent generalized likelihood ratio test (NSDD-GLRT), the detector takes the form of a sum of logarithms of identical functions of data from each individual range cell. It is shown under the clutter only hypothesis, that the detection statistic has the chi-square distribution so that the detector threshold is easily calculated for a given probability of false alarm P_F. The detection probability P_D is shown to be only a function of the signal-to-clutter power ratio (S/C)_opt of the matched filter, the number of pulses N, the number of target range resolution cells J, the spikiness of the clutter determined by a parameter of an assumed underlying mixing distribution, and P_F. For representative examples, it is shown that as N, J, or the clutter spikiness increases, detection performance improves. A second detector is developed which incorporates a priori knowledge of the spatial scatterer density. This detector is called the scatterer density dependent GLRT (SDD-GLRT) and is shown for a representative case to improve significantly the detection performance of a sparsely distributed target relative to the performance of the NSDD-GLRT and to be robust for a moderate mismatch of the expected number of scatterers. For both the NSDD-GLRT and SDD-GLRT, the detectors have the constant false-alarm rate (CFAR) property that P_F is independent of the underlying mixing distribution of the clutter, the clutter covariance matrix, and the steering vector of the desired signal     

SAR ATR performance using a conditionally Gaussian model

A family of conditionally Gaussian signal models for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery is presented, extending a related class of models developed for high resolution radar range profiles. This signal model is robust with respect to the variations of the complex-valued radar signals due to the coherent combination of returns from scatterers as those scatterers move through relative distances on the order of a wavelength of the transmitted signal (target speckle). The target type and the relative orientations of the sensor, target, and ground plane parameterize the conditionally Gaussian model. Based upon this model, algorithms to jointly estimate both the target type and pose are developed. Performance results for both target pose estimation and target recognition are presented for publicly released data from the MSTAR program     

Estimating Target Lengths Shorter Than the Radar Pulse Width

This paper discusses the performance and sensitivity of a maximum-likelihood length estimation algorithm which was originally developed to estimate the separation between unresolved point scatterers. It shows that when the two-scatterer target model is valid, the algorithm reliably estimates lengths shorter than the Rayleigh limit provided that the strength of no third interior scatterer (or its equivalent created by a few very closely spaced scatterers) is greater than the geometric mean of the strengths of the fore and aft scatterers.     

Harmonic Radar Systems for Near-Ground In-Foliage Nonlinear Scatterers

The radar transmission equation for a harmonic radar operating over a planar, finite dielectric Earth through foliage is derived for an interesting class of nonlinear scatterers. The received power can typically depend on range to the (-14) power for small objects near the ground. The maximum detection range of a ground-based system is related to all major system parameters: it is most sensitive to polarization, transmit antenna height, and transmit wavelength; moderately sensitive to transmit power and transmit antenna area; and least sensitive to receive antenna area, harmonic scattering cross section, and mode of data processing. For example, there is seen to be a best apportionment of total available aperture area into disjoint transmit and receive apertures which can be well approximated by the equal gain condition. Also, there is seen to be a critical path distance through foliage; at distances less than this, small wavelengths are desirable and, conversely, the upper transmit frequency limit may be set by nonlinear scatterer response. Airborne synthetic aperture radar systems are discussed and quantification of harmonic noise and effects of scatterer fluctuation are made. A useful phenomenological model of a nonlinear scatterer is given that is consistent with some observations and predicts a frequency dependence. Nonlinear scatterer effects on range resolution are discussed.     

Robust autofocus algorithm for ISAR imaging of moving targets

A robust autofocus approach, referred to as AUTOCLEAN (AUTOfocus via CLEAN), is proposed for the motion compensation in ISAR (inverse synthetic aperture radar) imaging of moving targets. It is a parametric algorithm based on a very flexible data model which takes into account arbitrary range migration and arbitrary phase errors across the synthetic aperture that may be induced by unwanted radial motion of the target as well as propagation or system instability. AUTOCLEAN can be classified as a multiple scatterer algorithm (MSA), but it differs considerably from other existing MSAs in several aspects: (1) Dominant scatterers are selected automatically in the 2D image domain; (2) scatterers may not be well isolated or very dominant; (3) phase and RCS information from each selected scatterer are combined in an optimal way; (4) the troublesome phase unwrapping step is avoided. AUTOCLEAN is computationally efficient and involves only a sequence of FFTs. Another good feature associated with AUTOCLEAN is that its performance can be progressively improved by assuming a larger number of dominant scatterers for the target. Numerical and experimental results have shown that AUTOCLEAN is a very robust autofocus tool for ISAR imaging     

距离扩展目标检测中的 强散射点自适应估计方法

高分辨雷达通过积累多个距离单元上的目标回波,达到提高距离扩展目标检测性能的目的。由于目标散射中心的稀疏分布,常规的能量积累检测方法存在陷落损失,而基于目标强散射点的积累检测方法可有效克服因陷落损失造成的检测性能下降问题。利用最大类间方差法对目标强散射点进行自适应估计,并通过仿真验证了该方法改善检测性能的有效性。     

Radar target identification using the bispectrum: a comparativestudy

Radar target identification is performed using time-domain bispectral features. The classification performance is compared with the performance of other classifiers that use either the impulse response or frequency domain response of the unknown target. The classification algorithms developed here are based on the spectral or the bispectral energy of the received backscatter signal. Classification results are obtained using simulated radar returns derived from measured scattering data from real radar targets. The performance of classifiers in the presence of additive Gaussian (colored or white), exponential noise, and Weibull noise are considered, along with cases where the azimuth position of the target is unknown. Finally, the effect on classification performance of responses horn extraneous point scatterers is investigated     

Ultra-wideband impulse radar-an overview of the principles

Over the past decade, extensive research work has been carried out to develop the ultra-wideband (UWB) technology for radar applications, and to resolve the practical challenges in implementing an efficient UWB radar system. In this paper, we present an overview of the basic principles of UWB impulse radar. The focus is on the principles of UWB signal generation, impulse radiation, waveform design, pulse compression, range-velocity resolution (ambiguity function), array beamforming, and radar-target signature     

A Real-Time Statistical Radar Target Model

Radar glint arises from the spatial phase perturbations of the radar signal echoed from a complex target. The glint phenomenon is closely related to the target radar cross section (RCS). This relationship plays a significant part in modern missile seeker signal processing. We present a statistical glint/RCS target model for realtime simulation of target signatures. Particular emphasis is placed upon the modeling and simulation of the appropriate glint/RCS statistical dependency. The fundamental approximation of locating uniformly distributed scatterers around the instantaneous radar centroid employed in the Delano-Gubonin [1, 2, 3] model is removed. A key result which follows from this representation is that the mean glint estimator is unbiased. This enables the estimation of model parameters from the first-order glint and RCS statistics which can easily be computed from measured data. A method of estimating model parameters is presented, and the results are applied to data from a typical combat aircraft target. It is shown that the Delano-Gubonin results are a special case of the results presented here. The 14.6 percent probability of glint falling beyond the target extent as derived by Delano [1] is not true in general. It is further shown that glint and RCS are uncorrelated but are statistically dependent. A Monte-Carlo simulation is performed to verify the assumptions made and to demonstrate the feasibility of the working models.     

Calibration of complex polarimetric SAR imagery using backscattercorrelations

A technique for calibration of multipolarization synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) imagery is described. If scatterer reciprocity and lack of correlation between co- and cross-polarized radar echoes (for azimuthally symmetric distributed targets) are assumed, the effects of signal leakage between the radar data channels can be removed without the use of known ground targets. If known targets are available, all data channels can be calibrated relative to one another and radiometrically as well. The method is verified with simulation and application to airborne SAR data     

Radar/Sonar Signal Design for Bounded Doppler Shifts

In many detection and estimation problems, Doppler frequency shifts are bounded. For clutter or multipath that is uniformly distributed in range and symmetrically distributed in Doppler shift relative to the signal, detectability of a point target or a communication signal is improved by minimizing the weighted volume of the magnitude-squared autoambiguity function. When clutter Doppler shifts are bounded, this volume is in a strip containing the range axis on the range-Doppler plane. For scattering function estimation, e.g., for weather radar, Doppler flow meters, and distributed target classifiers, it is again relevant to minimize ambiguity volume in a strip. Strip volume is minimized by using a pulse train, but such a signal has unacceptably large range sidelobes for most applications. Other waveforms that have relatively small sidelobe level within a strip on the range-Doppler plane, as well as small ambiguity volume in the strip, are obtained. The waveforms are composed of pulse pairs that are phase modulated with Golay complementary codes.     

Angular Glint and the Moving, Rotating, Complex Radar Target

Angular glint produces errors in radar-indicated target direction and in the Doppler frequency. Glint arises from phase perturbations of the radar signal echoed from a complex target, as compared to those from a point target. The phase gradient V? represents these glint effects very well. The direction of this vector is that of radar angle sensing. The Doppler shift is obtined from the dot product of the gradient and the target velocity. A procedure that isolates and measures glint phase variations alone, for the inaccessible target, is described.     

A Model for the Radar Echo from a Random Collection of Rotating Dipole Scatterers

A theoretical model for the radar echo from a random collection of dipole scatterers is presented. The analysis of the model takes into account the effects of scatterer rotation which have been neglected in previous related work. It is shown that rotational motion of the scaterers can have significant effects upon the echo waveform. The fluctuating characteristics of clutter echoes are also investigated. The theory and some experimental results in the literature are shown to be in relatively good agreement.     

无需辅助数据的分布式目标自适应检测器

在非高斯背景和没有辅助数据的条件下,研究了高分辨率雷达分布式目标的自适应检测问题.首先采用有序检测理论和协方差矩阵的迭代估计方法粗略估计散射点集合,进一步利用迭代估计方法获得协方差矩阵的近似最大似然估计,提出了无需辅助数据的自适应检测器(ADWSD).ADWSD在非高斯背景下具有近似恒虚警率特性,且检测性能远好于修正的...     

Time-frequency approaches to ISAR imaging of maneuvering targetsand their limitations

Inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging of the noncooperative maneuvering target is a challenging task because of its time variant orientation and rotation velocity which cannot be measured accurately. This correspondence investigates the principles of ISAR imaging of maneuvering targets, and proposes an algorithm for application in situations where the maneuverability is not too severe and the Doppler variation of subechoes from scatterers can be approximated as a first-order polynomial. The imaging results obtained by using real data show the effectiveness of the new method     

Iterative MMSE method and recurrent Kalman procedure for ISAR imagereconstruction

This work presents a novel approximate iterative and recurrent approach for image reconstruction from inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) data. Mathematical models of the quadrature components of the ISAR signal, reflected by an object with a complex geometry, are devised. Approximation matrix functions are used to describe deterministic signals reflected by point scatterers located at nodes of the uniform grid (model) during inverse aperture synthesis. Minimum mean square error (MMSE) equations and Kalman equations are derived. To prove the validity and correctness of the developed iterative MMSE method and recurrent Kalman procedure, numerical experiments were performed. The computational results demonstrate high resolution images, unambiguous and convergent estimates of the point scatterers' intensities of a target from simulated ISAR data     

Monopulse Radars Excited by Gaussian Signals

This paper presents the theoretical probability densities of the outputs of both an amplitude-comparison monopulse radar and a phase-comparison monopulse radar when the monopulse radars are excited by Gaussian signals plus Gaussian noises. These probability densities are useful for studying the responses of monopulse radars to noise excitations. For example: Noise excitations arise when the monopulse radars are ?viewing? a noise source or a radar target consisting of randomly moving scatterers. The probability densities also serve as useful approximations for characterizing the outputs of monopulse radars when sinusoidal signals plus Gaussian noises excite the monopulse radars. Some special cases of the probability densities are presented in graphs.     

CFAR detection of distributed targets in non-Gaussian disturbance

The subject of detection of spatially distributed targets in non-Gaussian noise with unknown statistics is addressed. At the design stage, in order to cope with the a priori uncertainty, we model noise returns as Gaussian vectors with the same structure of the covariance matrix, but possibly different power levels (heterogeneous environment). We also assume that a set of secondary data, free of signal components, is available to estimate the correlation properties of the disturbance The proposed detector assumes no a priori knowledge about the spatial distribution of the target scatterers and ensures the constant false alarm rate (CFAR) property with respect to both the structure of the covariance matrix and the power levels. Finally, the performance assessment, conducted modeling the disturbance as a spherically invariant random process (SIRP), confirms its validity to operate in real radar scenarios