Adaptive conformal array radar

Abstract

This paper considers the novel application of space-time adaptive processing (STAP) to conformal array radar. Using numerical simulation, we characterize the performance potential of two candidate conformal array designs: a tapered, belly-mounted canoe and a conformal array taking the shape of a chined radome. We find the nonlinear nature of the conformal array design induces clutter angle-Doppler nonstationarity. This nonstationarity leads to covariance matrix estimation errors and a consequent degradation in STAP performance potential. We find these additional losses reside in the range of 4-10 dB for the two array designs under consideration. Finally, we briefly investigate several ameliorating solutions based on localized processing and time-varying weights, achieving performance gains on the order of several decibels to fully mitigating nonstationary behavior over regions of the detection space.