Radar Ground Clutter Measurement And Models Part 2 Spectral Characteristics And Temporal Statistics

The performance of ground-based surveillance radars is affected by the spectral characteristics and the temporal statistics of ground clutter. Traditionally, ground clutter problems are treated by employing filtering techniques such as delay-line cancellers. These techniques result in a degraded detection performance of low-velocity targets. With the worsening congestion in air traffic, there is an increased demand for improved performance of low-velocity target detection. To improve the detection performance of ground-based surveillance radars for low-velocity targets, signal processing algorithms which exploit ground-clutter characteristics must be developed. This requires a thorough understanding of ground-clutter behaviour. In this paper, we report the results of the spectral and statistical analyses of low-angle ground clutter, using data of the MIT Lincoln Laboratory Phase I program and S-band coherent ground-clutter data collected by the Radar Division of the Defence research Establishment Ottawa. The results of the spectral analysis show that ground clutter, as observed by a coherent radar with a stationary antenna, comprises three components: (a) a coherent component, (b) a slow-diffuse component and (c) a fast-diffuse component. These components can be described by relatively simple models. The model parameters are functions of radar frequency, waveform resolution, land cover and wind speed.