Identification of aircraft targets based on multifractal spectrum features

Abstract

The multifractal spectrum characteristics of return signals from aircraft targets in conventional radars offer a fine description of dynamic characteristics which induce the targets' echo structure, therefore they can provide a new way for aircraft target identification by conventional radars. On basis of introducing the scattering mechanism of return signals from aircraft targets in conventional radars, the paper analyzed the multifractal characteristics of return signals from aircraft targets, defined several characteristic parameters for multifractal spectrum curves, and discussed their identification mechanism for different types of aircraft targets. The identification experiment results with real recorded echo data showed the multifractal-spectrum-signature-based identification method got an average correct identification rate of more than 97 percent, so the defined characteristic parameters could be used as effective features for aircraft target identification.