A radiation center representation of antenna radiation patterns on a complex platform

A sparse model of the antenna radiation pattern on a complex platform is presented. This representation is based on a point radiator model that describes the radiation pattern by a collection of radiation centers on the platform. The methodology for obtaining the radiation center model is presented. It entails first generating the three-dimensional (3-D) antenna synthetic aperture radar (ASAR) imagery of the platform and then parameterizing the resulting image by a collection of point radiators via the CLEAN algorithm. It is shown that once such a representation is obtained, we can reconstruct and extrapolate antenna radiation patterns over frequencies and aspects with good fidelity, thus achieving high data compression ratio. Furthermore, it is shown that the resulting radiation center information can be used to pinpoint cause-and-effect in platform scattering and provide important guidelines for reducing platform effects.