Karl Gerlach

Coherent detection of radar targets in a non-gaussian background

The problem of detecting radar targets against a background of coherent, correlated, non-Gaussian clutter is studied with a two-step procedure. In the first step, the structure of the amplitude and the multivariate probability density functions (pdfs) describing the statistical properties of the clutter is derived. The starting point for this derivation is the basic scattering problem, and the statistics are obtained from an extension of the central limit theorem (CLT). This extension leads to modeling the clutter amplitude statistics by a mixture of Rayleigh distributions. The end product of the first step is a multidimensional pdf in the form of a Gaussian mixture, which is then used in step 2. The aim of step 2 is to derive both the optimal and a suboptimal detection structure for detecting radar targets in this type of clutter. Some performance results for the new detection processor are also given. >

Adaptive pulse compression via MMSE estimation

Radar pulse compression involves the extraction of an estimate of the range profile illuminated by a radar in the presence of noise. A problem inherent to pulse compression is the masking of small targets by large nearby targets due to the range sidelobes that result from standard matched filtering. This paper presents a new approach based upon a minimum mean-square error (MMSE) formulation in which the pulse compression filter for each individual range cell is adaptively estimated from the received signal in order to mitigate the masking interference resulting from matched filtering in the vicinity of large targets. The proposed method is compared with the standard matched filter and least-squares (LS) estimation and is shown to be superior over a variety of stressing scenarios.

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/sub F/. The detection probability P/sub D/ is shown to be only a function of the signal-to-clutter power ratio (S/C)/sub 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/sub 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/sub F/ is independent of the underlying mixing distribution of the clutter, the clutter covariance matrix, and the steering vector of the desired signal.

Fast converging adaptive processor or a structured covariance matrix

The use of adaptive linear techniques to solve signal processing problems is needed particularly when the interference environment external to the signal processor (such as for a radar or communication system) is not known a priori. Due to this lack of knowledge of an external environment, adaptive techniques require a certain amount of data to cancel the external interference. The number of statistically independent samples per input sensor required so that the performance of the adaptive processor is close (nominally within 3 dB) to the optimum is called the convergence measure of effectiveness (MOE) of the processor. The minimization of the convergence MOE is important since in many environments the external interference changes rapidly with time. Although there are heuristic techniques in the literature that provide fast convergence for particular problems, there is currently not a general solution for arbitrary interference that is derived via classical theory. A maximum likelihood (ML) solution (under the assumption that the input interference is Gaussian) is derived here for a structured covariance matrix that has the form of the identity matrix plus an unknown positive semi-definite Hermitian (PSDH) matrix. This covariance matrix form is often valid in realistic interference scenarios for radar and communication systems. Using this ML estimate, simulation results are given that show that the convergence is much faster than the often-used sample matrix inversion method. In addition, the ML solution for a structured covariance matrix that has the aforementioned form where the scale factor on the identity matrix is arbitrarily lower-bounded, is derived. Finally, an efficient implementation is presented.

Detection of a spatially distributed target in white noise

A detector of a spatially distributed target in white Gaussian noise is developed. A reasonable distribution for the a priori target scatterer density is assumed, and a detector that incorporates this a priori knowledge is given. A simple detector form results, whose detection performance is robust over different scattering densities.

Outlier resistant adaptive matched filtering

Robust adaptive matched filtering (AMF) whereby outlier data vectors are censored from the covariance matrix estimate is considered in a maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) setting. It is known that outlier data vectors whose steering vector is highly correlated with the desired steering vector, can significantly degrade the performance of AMF algorithms such as sample matrix inversion (SMI) or fast maximum likelihood (FML). Four new algorithms that censor outliers are presented which are derived via approximation to the MLE solution. Two algorithms each are related to using the SMI or the FML to estimate the unknown underlying covariance matrix. Results are presented using computer simulations which demonstrate the relative effectiveness of the four algorithms versus each other and also versus the SMI and FML algorithms in the presence of outliers and no outliers. It is shown that one of the censoring algorithms, called the reiterative censored fast maximum likelihood (CFML) technique is significantly superior to the other three censoring methods in stressful outlier scenarios.

Airborne/spacebased radar STAP using a structured covariance matrix

It is shown that partial information about the airborne/spacebased (A/S) clutter covariance matrix (CCM) can be used effectively to significantly enhance the convergence performance of a block-processed space/time adaptive processor (STAP) in a clutter and jamming environment. The partial knowledge of the CCM is based upon the simplified general clutter model (GCM) which has been developed by the airborne radar community. A priori knowledge of parameters which should be readily measurable (but not necessarily accurate) by the radar platform associated with this model is assumed. The GCM generates an assumed CCM. The assumed CCM along with exact knowledge of the thermal noise covariance matrix is used to form a maximum likelihood estimate (MLE) of the unknown interference covariance matrix which is used by the STAP. The new algorithm that employs the a priori clutter and thermal noise covariance information is evaluated using two clutter models: 1) a mismatched GCM, and 2) the high-fidelity Research Laboratory STAP clutter model. For both clutter models, the new algorithm performed significantly better (i.e., converged faster) than the sample matrix inversion (SMI) and fast maximum likelihood (FML) STAP algorithms, the latter of which uses only information about the thermal noise covariance matrix.

Low sidelobe radar waveforms derived from orthogonal matrices

Novel waveforms are described that have low sidelobes when individual or multiple waveforms are approximately processed. They are related to orthogonal matrices that may be associated with complementary sequences and also with periodic waveforms having autocorrelation functions with constant zero-amplitude sidelobes. Also described are sets of sequences whose cross-correlation functions sum to zero everywhere. A potential application is the elimination of ambiguous range stationary clutter. >

Stap using knowledge-aided covariance estimation and the fracta algorithm

In the airborne space-time adaptive processing (STAP) setting, a priori information via knowledge-aided covariance estimation (KACE) is employed in order to reduce the required sample support for application to heterogeneous clutter scenarios. The enhanced FRACTA (FRACTA.E) algorithm with KACE as well as Doppler-sensitive adaptive coherence estimation (DS-ACE) is applied to the KASSPER I & II data sets where it is shown via simulation that near-clairvoyant detection performance is maintained with as little as 1/3 of the normally required number of training data samples. The KASSPER I & II data sets are simulated high-fidelity heterogeneous clutter scenarios which possess several groups of dense targets. KACE provides a priori information about the clutter covariance matrix by exploiting approximately known operating parameters about the radar platform such as pulse repetition frequency (PRF), crab angle, and platform velocity. In addition, the DS-ACE detector is presented which provides greater robustness for low sample support by mitigating false alarms from undernulled clutter near the clutter ridge while maintaining sufficient sensitivity away from the clutter ridge to enable effective target detection performance

Robust adaptive signal processing methods for heterogeneous radar clutter scenarios

This paper addresses the problem of radar target detection in severely heterogeneous clutter environments. Specifically we present the performance of the normalized matched filter (NMF) test in a background of disturbance consisting of clutter having a covariance matrix with known structure and unknown scaling plus background white Gaussian noise. It is shown that when the clutter covariance matrix is low rank, the NMF test retains invariance with respect to the unknown scaling as well as the background noise level and is approximately CFAR. Performance of the test depends only upon the number of elements, number of pulses processed in a coherent processing interval and the rank of the clutter covariance matrix. Analytical expressions for calculating the false alarm and detection probabilities are presented. Performance of the method is shown to degrade with increasing clutter rank especially for low false alarm rates. An adaptive version of the test is developed and its performance is studied with simulated data. A technique known as self censoring reiterative fast maximum likelihood/adaptive power residue (SCRFML/APR) is presented to overcome the problem of outliers in training data for heterogeneous clutter scenarios.