Second time around radar return suppression using PRI modulation

A technique for suppressing second-time-around radar returns using pulse-repetition interval (PRI) modulation is presented and analyzed. It is shown that a staggered PRI radar system can offer considerable improvement over a nonstaggered radar system in rejecting second-time-around returns which cause false alarms. This improvement is a function of detector implementation (noncoherent integrator or binary integrator), the number of staggered PRIs, the quiescent false alarm number, the Swerling number of the false return, the transmitted signal power, the second-time-around noise power, and the quiescent noise power of the radar. Small changes in transmitted signal power can be traded off with the quiescent false alarm number to suppress the bogus return significantly. In addition, for a noncoherent integrator, all other parameters being equal, if the second-time-around return is a Swerling case II or IV target, then there is an optimum number of staggered PRIs that can be chosen to minimize the likelihood of its detection. It is also shown that the binary integrator significantly reduces the number of second-time-around return detections when compared with the noncoherent integrator. However, there is an accompanying loss of detection     

Coherent Doppler tomography-a technique for narrow band SAR

Some concerns regarding a technique of narrowband synthetic aperture radar (N-SAR) imaging called coherent Doppler tomography (CDT), which may be a good candidate for spaceborne applications, are addressed. Using a single-frequency signal, are addressed. Using a single-frequency signal, resolution of two tenths of a wavelength can be achieved in the point spread function if the radar platform circles the ground path to be imaged. However, the high sidelobe level of -8-dB in the point spread function results in an unacceptable dynamic range. To reduce the sidelobe level, two approaches are presented: coherent processing using multiple discrete frequencies and noncoherent subaperture processing. Simulation results demonstrate that the sidelobe level is substantially reduced by both methods. However, the resolution is degraded and the computational overhead is greatly increased for noncoherent subaperture processing. Also presented is a possible satellite geometry configuration that could utilize N-SAR processing to provide high-resolution global mapping capability     

Direct position determination using single moving rotating linear array: Noncoherent and coherent processing

To improve the resolution and accuracy of Direct Position Determination (DPD), this paper investigates the problem of positioning multiple emitters directly with a single moving Rotating Linear Array (RLA). Firstly, the geometry of the RLA is formulated and analysed. According to its geometry, the intercepted noncoherent signals in multiple interception intervals are modeled. Correspondingly, the MUltiple SIgnal Classification (MUSIC) based noncoherent DPD approach is proposed. Secondly, the synchronous coherent pulse signals are individually considered and formulated. And the coherent DPD approach which aims for localizing this special type of signal is presented by stacking all array responses at different interception intervals. Besides, we also derive the constrained Cramér-Rao Lower Bound (CRLB) expression for both noncoherent and coherent DPD with RLA under the constraint that the altitudes of the emitters are known. At last, computer simulations are included to examine the performance of the proposed approach. The results demonstrate that the localization accuracy and resolution of DPD with single moving linear array can be significantly improved by the array rotation. In addition, coherent DPD with RLA further improves the resolution and increases the maximum emitter number that can be localized compared with the noncoherent DPD with RLA.     

Pade approximations for detectability in K-clutter and noise

The Pade approximation (PA) method is used to analyze the detection performance of single and multiple pulse radar systems operating in K-distributed clutter and thermal noise. Simple approximations for false-alarm and detection probabilities are obtained, using lower order moments for the detection decision statistic. Both envelope and squaring detector laws are considered, with noncoherent integration, for independent and correlated K clutter. The target is assumed to be pulse-to-pulse Rayleigh fading. The methods are a substantial application of the PA methods we have previously published     

Search radar detection and track with the Hough transform. III.Detection performance with binary integration

For pt.II see ibid., vol. 30, no 1, (Jan. 1994). This paper considers how well a Hough transform detector with binary integration improves the performance of a typical surveillance radar. For Hough transform detection, binary integration offers some advantages over noncoherent integration when multiple targets appear in range-time space or when the detector receives signals with a wide range of power. We derive expressions for P_F and P_D for a Hough transform binary integrator and apply the expressions to a typical surveillance radar. The results show that for the case considered, the binary Hough integrator improves the power budget of the radar by about 3 dB for a nonfluctuating target and 1 dB for a highly fluctuating target     

The Effect of Spectral Shape on Clutter Standard Deviation

Many radar systems now employ wideband waveforms and noncoherent averaging techniques to reduce the scintillation of the backscatter from ground clutter. The purpose of this paper is to quantify the effects of the wideband spectral shape on the clutter standard deviation after noncoherent averaging of the received signal. Relationships are developed which quantify the clutter standard deviation for any spectral shape and any ratio of transmitted band-width to processed bandwidth.     

The Impact of Strong Scintillation on Space Based Radar Design II: Noncoherent Detection

Electromagnetic signals that propagate through strongly disturbed regions of the ionosphere can experience scattering which can cause significant amplitude, phase, and angle-of-arrival fluctuations. This paper considers the performance of a space based radar (SBR) that must operate through a highly disturbed propagation environment such as might occur during a barium release or after a high altitude nuclear detonation. A brief summary of the propagation channel characteristics is given in terms of quantities that are important to SBR design issues. Results are then given showing the effect of noncoherent integration on target detection performance. Both coherent and noncoherent detection performance can be seriously degraded by scintillation if scintillation is not adequately considered in the radar design.     

FPGA-based adaptive tracking estimation computer

We describe an FPGA-based adaptive tracking estimation computer (FATEC) for a multiple target tracking (MTT) radar system. Its design is centered around a small processor core customized according to the requirements of tracking application, to run the main control program and provide software flexibility, with a number of tracking algorithms (models) implemented in hardware-type functional units, in order to meet the timing requirements of the application. The FATEC approach provides combination of software flexibility, hardware efficiency, and functional adaptivity of implementation of application-specific computers for the other applications of a similar type, enabling various partitioning options between the software and the hardware parts of the solution     

Evaluating Radar Detection Probabilities by Steepest Descent Integration

The probability of detection for radars employing noncoherent integration and a fixed threshold or cell-averaging constant false alarm rate (CA-CFAR) processor is computed by numerical contour integration in the complex plane. The technique is applied to both nonfluctuating and chi-squared fluctuating targets. A bound on the truncation error allows for a simple stopping rule for the numerical integration. The method has applicability to many problems in radar detection theory.     

Tracking considerations in selection of radar waveform for rangeand range-rate measurements

The conventional approach for tracking system design is to treat the detection and tracking subsystems as completely independent units. However, the two subsystems can be designed jointly to improve system (tracking) performance. It is known that different radar signal waveforms result in very different resolution cell shapes (for example, a rectangle versus an eccentric parallelogram) in the range/range-rate space, and that there are corresponding differences in overall tracking performance. We develop a framework for the analysis of this performance. An imperfect detection process, false alarms, target dynamics, and the matched filter sampling grid are all accounted for, using the Markov chain approach of Li and Bar-Shalom. The role of the grid is stressed, and it is seen that the measurement-extraction process from contiguous radar "hits" is very important. A number of conclusions are given, perhaps the most interesting of which is the corroboration in the new measurement space of Fitzgerald's result for delay-only (i.e., range) measurements, that a linear FM upsweep offers very good tracking performance     

Stability Measurement Problems and Techniques for Operational Airborne Pulse Doppler Radar

In the deployment of pulse Doppler (PD) radar, determination of phase and amplitude stability is the most difficult measurement problem. Unique requirements are placed on pulse and carrier stability so that the radar can perform in strong clutter. Because of subclutter visibility and sensitivity specifications, coherent noise, which is insignificant for noncoherent pulse radars, becomes extremely important. In solving the measurement problem, special support equipment was developed which is considered to have reached such a degree of refinement that it is probably one of the most technically advanced pieces of field test equipment supporting any operational radar. This paper discusses stability requirements, sources of instability, and the combination of techniques selected for verification of compliance of the PD radar with the stability requirements. The results of a program to develop special field support equipment to satisfy the measurement requirements are emphasized. Results of field experience and the special training required of military field personnel to enable them to effectively use this relatively complex support equipment are discussed.     

Robust space-time adaptive processing for airborne radar in nonhomogeneous clutter environments

Space-time adaptive processing (STAP) holds tremendous potential for the new generation airborne surveillance radar, in which the phased array antennas and pulse Doppler processing mode are adopted. A new STAP approach using the multiple-beam and multiple Doppler channels is presented here for airborne phased array radar. The approach with space-time multiple-beam (STMB) architecture is robust to array errors and has very low system degrees of freedom (DOFs). Hence, it has low sample support requirement and it is very suitable for the practical planar phased array radar under nonhomogeneous clutter environments. Meanwhile, a new nonhomogeneous detector (NHD) based on the correlation dimension (CD) is also proposed here, which is used as an effective method to screen tracing data prior to detection processing. It can further improve the performance of the STAP approach in the severely nonhomogeneous clutter environments. Therefore, a scheme that incorporates the correlation dimension nonhomogeneity detector (CD-NHD) with the STMB is recommended, which we term CD-NHD-STMB. The experimental simulation results indicate that: 1) the STMB processor is robust to array element error and has high performance under nonhomogeneous clutter environments; 2) the CD-NHD is also effective on the nonhomogeneous clutter. As a result, the CD-NHD-STMB scheme is robust to array element error and nonhomogeneous clutter, and therefore available for airborne phased array radar applications.     

Maritime border control multisensor system

This focuses on the classification task performed into a multi-sensor system for the coastal surveillance. The system is composed of two platforms of sensors: a land-based platform equipped with a land based radar, an Automatic Identification System (AIS) and an infrared camera (IR); an airborne platform carrying an airborne radar that can operate in a spotlight Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) mode, a video camera, and a second IR camera. The tasks performed by the system are the detection, tracking, identification, and classification of multiple targets, the evaluation of their threat level, and the selection of an intervention on them. The classification algorithm implemented inside the system exploits an analytical approach based on the confusion matrix (CM) of the imaging sensors that belong to the system. Some measures of effectiveness (MoE) of the system are evaluated, considering both cases where an ideal error-free classification process and a non-ideal classification process are performed.     

Adapitive waveform design for distributed OFDM MIMO radar system in multi-target scenario

In order to improve detection and estimation performance of distributed Orthogonal-Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) radar system in multi-target scene, we propose a novel approach of Adaptive Waveform Design (AWD) based on a constrained Multi-Objective Optimization (MOO). The sparse measurement model of this radar system is derived, and the method based on decomposed Dantzig selectors is applied for the sparse recovery according to the block structures of the sparse vector and the system matrix. An AWD approach is proposed, which optimizes two objective functions, namely minimizing the upper bound of the recovery error and maximizing the weakest-target return, by adjusting the complex weights of the emitting waveform amplitudes. Several numerical simulations are provided and their results show that the detection and estimation performance of the radar system is improved significantly when this MOO-based AWD approach is applied to the distributed OFDM MIMO radar system. Especially, we verify the effectiveness of our AWD approach when the available samples are reduced severally and the technique of compressed sensing is introduced.     

多输入多输出电磁矢量阵列雷达的DOD和DOA联合估计

研究一种基于电磁矢量传感器阵列的多输入多输出(MIMO)雷达目标波离角(DOD)和波达角(DOA)的联合估计算法.提出了一种新型MIMO雷达系统,发射阵列采用常规阵元,而接收阵列采用电磁矢量传感器,在此基础上,算法首先利用矢量传感器的内在结构特点结合子空间旋转不变性质获得目标DOA预估计,随后采用最佳加权子空间拟合算法...     

Closed-Form Expressions for Noncoherent Radar Integration Gain and Collapsing Loss

Closed-form formulas allow rapid determination of noncoherent integration gain and integration loss when the single-sample IF signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is known. In addition, if the required SNR is known for any number of integrated pulses, the required SNR for any other number is easily determined. A closed-form expression is given for radar collapsing loss, expressed in terms of the equivalent integrated signal-to-noise ratio required to produce a given combination of false-alarm and detection probabilities. Alternatively, the single-sample signal-to-noise ratio of a set of samples may be used together with the closed-form expression for integration gain to get the equivalent integrated signal-to-noise ratio.     

Detecting the Presence of Target Multiplicity

A method is discussed for detecting the presence of multiple targets in the radar antenna beam. It is assumed that the targets are unresolvable in range, Doppler, and angle using conventional monopulse resolution techniques. The basic approach taken is a generalization of the "quadrature" method, with significantly enhanced performance in the case when multiple pulses are integrated into a single solution. Detection and false alarm probabilities are derived analytically and the receiver operating characteristics are graphed. This study was performed for application to angle processing in a frequency agile automatic tracking radar, but the underlying concept is general and has applications outside this area.     

Multi-Target/Multi-Sensor Tracking using Only Range and Doppler Measurements

A new approach is described for combining range and Doppler data from multiple radar platforms to perform multi-target detection and tracking. In particular, azimuthal measurements are assumed to be either coarse or unavailable, so that multiple sensors are required to triangulate target tracks using range and Doppler measurements only. Increasing the number of sensors can cause data association by conventional means to become impractical due to combinatorial complexity, i.e., an exponential increase in the number of mappings between signatures and target models. When the azimuthal resolution is coarse, this problem will be exacerbated by the resulting overlap between signatures from multiple targets and clutter. In the new approach, the data association is performed probabilistically, using a variation of expectation-maximization (EM). Combinatorial complexity is avoided by performing an efficient optimization in the space of all target tracks and mappings between tracks and data. The full, multi-sensor, version of the algorithm is tested on simulated data. The results demonstrate that accurate tracks can be estimated by exploiting spatial diversity in the sensor locations. Also, as a proof-of-concept, a simplified, single-sensor range-only version of the algorithm is tested on experimental radar data acquired with a stretch radar receiver. These results are promising, and demonstrate robustness in the presence of nonhomogeneous clutter.     

ATC模拟系统中存贮系统的容错技术

ATC 模拟系统是一个比较复杂的,实时性很强的控制系统,要求整个系统的可靠性很高。而对于一个系统来讲,其中央存贮系统是保证整个系统正常工作的关键部件之一。在我们引进的系统中,它的容错技术在设计上有其独到之处。本文就其存贮系统的结构、容错技术及支持电路这三部分予以说明和论述,仅供同行参考。