Airborne Radar Model For Non-Uniformly Spaced Antenna Arrays

摘要

This thesis presents an airborne radar model for non-uniformly spaced antenna arrays. Non-uniform arrays potentially possess advantages unobtainable by uniformly spaced arrays. An element position matrix is defined to accommodate arbitrary element locations. The new element position matrix affects the time/phase delay to each element, spatial frequencies, steering vectors, space-time snapshots, and covariance matrices. The joint domain localized and factored time-space-time adaptive processing algorithms are also updated so they are compatible with the new model. The non-uniformly spaced array radar model is verified with previous models presented by Jaffer, Ward, and Hale. The model for non-uniform arrays is used to compare performance of 24 element and 15 element circular arrays to a 6 x 6 uniformly spaced planar array having the same physical dimensions. Simulation results indicate that non- uniformly spaced arrays such as the circular array can potentially be used in airborne radar systems in place of uniformly spaced arrays. As a result, array costs may be reduced by using fewer elements without sacrificing detection capabilities.