Improvement of Detection Ranges for Targets in Sidelobe Clutter Surroundings by Sigma-Delta STAP for Airborne Radars

Abstract

Medium pulse repetition frequency (MPRF) waveforms are used in common airborne radar because of their advantages. However, one of the disadvantages of MPRF waveforms is the decrement of detectable ranges by sidelobe clutter at low-altitude platforms. To overcome this disadvantage and to increase the detectable ranges at low-altitude platforms, this study proposes a sidelobe clutter reduction method. Airborne radar has sum and difference antenna channels, and sidelobe clutter reduction is processed using sigma-delta spatio-temporal adaptive processing in the sidelobe-clutter surroundings of low-altitude platforms. In terms of the sidelobe clutter reduction performance and the effectiveness of increasing the detection range, the proposed method is simulated and tested using simulated data.

Keywords

• airborne radar
• mprf waveform
• reduction of sidelobe clutter
• sigma-delta stap
• surface clutter