Effects of Ionospheric Scintillation on DPCA Clutter Rejection Performance,
Abstract
Detection of moving targets by Space-Based Radar (SBR) will be significantly affected by the SBR platform motion. This motion will both shift and spread the clutter spectrum associated with stationary returns, degrading the SBR performance. A technique for compensating for spectrum spreading effects due to motion is to include a displaced phase center antenna (DPCA) as part of the clutter rejection system. Calculations taking into account ionospheric scintillation of the clutter improvement factor (CIF) for such a system have been performed previously. However, to date these calculations have assumed a gaussian correlation function for the ionosphere scintillation component of the radar return envelope. The effects of ionospheric scintillations are obtained employing current models for ionospheric electron density irregularities, and propagating signals through these irregularities taking into account the detailed geometry of the relevant two-way propagation paths. These CIF calculations then allow DPCA performance for an SBR to be evaluated as a function of both scintillation levels. It is shown that ionospheric scintillation can significantly effect the CIF for a DPCA system, and impose critical performance constraints.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 03, 1990
- Accession Number
- ADP006292
Entities
People
- Dennis L. Knepp
- J. T. Reinking
- Trent N. Moody