A Statistical Model of Radar Bird Clutter at the DEW Line

Abstract

The Distant Early Warning (DEW) line radar system is presently being upgraded. One of the problems encountered is radar bird clutter. In this report we consider radar bird clutter during migration of a number of species of large birds, and present an estimation of the Radar Cross Section (RCS) as the number of birds, the number of flocks, and the number density of a flock, expected to be seen are mathematically described. Probabilistic descriptions are developed of the bird clutter that the radars are expected to observe. The probability that a flock of a known species of birds would have a particular RCS is determined. Also, probability curves are derived that predict how many flocks out of those observed would have an RCS greater than a specified arbitrary value. A mathematical procedure to make these predictions is established.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 1991
Accession Number
ADA242262

Entities

People

  • John Antonucci

Organizations

  • Rome Laboratory

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Binomials
  • Birds
  • Clutter
  • Distribution Curves
  • Distribution Functions
  • Equations
  • Frequency
  • Graphs
  • Integrals
  • Normal Distribution
  • Probability
  • Radar
  • Radar Clutter
  • Radar Cross Sections
  • Random Variables
  • Sea Level

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Aerospace Engineering
  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Sensor Fusion and Tracking Systems.