Optimum Processing of Unequally Spaced Radar Pulse Trains for Clutter Rejection

A train of radar pulses from one resolution cell can be processed coherently to reject echoes from external clutter and detect targets moving radially with respect to the clutter. Optimum methods of signal processing are defined for systems in which the interpulse spacings are multiply staggered to avoid target blind speeds. Likelihood ratio tests are developed for systems in which the target Doppler frequency is known a priori and for systems employing a bank of filters to cover the target Doppler band. To implement such tests, the N pulses in the train are added with complex weights and the amplitude of the sum compared with a detection threshold. The set of weights which maximizes the average signal-to-clutter ratio is also computed for a single-filter system with unknown target Doppler frequency. When the clutter autocorrelation function is exponential, the clutter covariance matrix can be inverted analytically. This latter result is useful for comparing different interpulse-spacing codes for a particular system application.     

Optimal polarimetric processing for enhanced target detection

The results of a study of several polarimetric target detection algorithms are summarized. The algorithms were tested using real target-in-clutter data collected by the Lincoln Laboratory 35 GHz synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensor. Fully polarimetric measurements (HH, HV, VV) are processed into intensity imagery using adaptive and nonadaptive polarimetric whitening filters (PWFs). Then a two-parameter constant false alarm rate (CFAR) detector is run over the imagery to detect the targets. Nonadaptive PWF processed imagery is shown to provide better protection performance than either adaptive PWF processed imagery or single-polarimetric-channel HH imagery. In addition, nonadaptive PWF processed imagery is shown to be visually clearer than adaptive processed imagery     

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.     

Quantization Noise in Digital Moving Target Indication Systems

This paper deals precisely with the effect of quantum or step size in an analog-to-digital converter on the quantization noise in the output of MTI (moving target indication) radar processors. The correlation between quantization errors on successive pulses is considered in the analysis and is shown to have a small quieting effect on the output quantization noise.     

Government Standards and Specifications?To Update or Not to Update?

Government contracts mandate specifications and standards of specific issues and dates; Government/industry practice involves continuing update of materials, processes, and components documents. These different approaches create hardships in major system procurements, due to long duration of the procurement cycle. Examples of inconsistencies among documents governing electronic systems are discussed and tabulated. Modification of the ?Defense Standardization Manual 4120.3-M? is recommended, to provide a consistent and practicable Department of Defense policy.     

A multiresolution approach to discrimination in SAR imagery

We develop and test a new algorithm for discriminating man-made objects from natural clutter in synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) imagery. This algorithm exploits characteristic variations in speckle pattern as image resolution is varied from course to fine. We model these variations as an autoregression in scale, and then use the autoregressive model to define a multiresolution log-likelihood ratio discriminant. We incorporate this discriminant into the existing Lincoln Laboratory SAR system for automatic target recognition (ATR), and test the augmented system by applying it to millimeter-wave SAR imagery having 0.3 m resolution and representing 56 square kilometers of terrain. At a probability of detection of 0.95, the addition of the multiresolution discriminant reduces the number of natural-clutter false alarms by a factor of six.