Clutter rejection is among the most important issues in radarsignal processing, for which the adaptive antenna technique can bea powerful means.Compared to other applications of the adaptive antenna, however,atmospheric radars require strict conditions, which have preventedapplication of this technique;the main antenna beam pattern should not be altered since thetarget region is defined by its shape.In particular, the loss of the antenna gain should be kept to no more thanabout 0.5dB, in order to maintain the high sensitivity of the system.Also, clutter from surrounding mountains is often stronger than thedesired weak scattering from atmospheric turbulence.We introduce a new algorithm which satisfies the above conditions,and confirms its capability by applying it to actual data takenby the MU radar.This paper presents the first report that demonstrates the effectiveness ofthe adaptive antenna technique in atmospheric radar applications.Despite the fact that no information is given on the spectralfeatures of the desired and undesired signals, only the clutterechoes from surrounding mountains were effectively cancelledwithout affecting the desired echoes from atmospheric turbulence.
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