MIMO clutter discrete probing for cognitive radar

A new airborne radar mode is introduced that addresses the problem of high false alarm rates due to strong clutter discretes in the radar field of regard. The new mode takes advantage of emerging cognitive and fully adaptive radar (CoFAR) architectures that support rapid adaptation of the radar space-time transmit waveform. The new mode exploits this flexibility to both rapidly characterize strong clutter discretes and minimize their impact on target detection performance, while minimizing impact to radar timeline. The new mode leverages a MIMO probing approach that rapidly characterizes the clutter discretes in the scene and uses the received signals to form an appropriate space-time waveform response that minimizes their radar return and impact on radar performance during the processing of subsequent radar pulses. The paper provides details about the processing algorithms and presents a performance assessment based on a simulation of an airborne GMTI radar system.