Probability of Detecting a Swerling I Targetet on Two Correlated Observations

Modern radars characterized by electronically steered beams, frequency agility, and range-ambiguous waveforms can use a processing technique whereby each new detection is followed by a second dwell to verify the initial detection. The second dwell is used to minimize false alarms and to resolve range and/or Doppler ambiguities. Under the assumption of a Swerling I target model, the target cross section remains constant when both dwells occur on the same scan and the same transmission frequency is used. Analytic expressions have been developed for the probability of detecting a Swerling I target on both of the correlated dwells (same target cross section). These expressions are used to calculate the probability of a second dwell detection given a first dwell detection and the probability of at least one detection on two dwells. These probabilities are compared with those of independent dwells (independent target cross sections) which result when two transmission frequencies of sufficient separation are utilized.