Radar target identification of aircraft using structural features by correlation method

Under the wideband high range resolution fully polarized radar background, we present an approach to aircraft radar target classification that exploits the relationship between the physical structure of the observed and the stepped frequency backscatter response. First, we represent the radar backscatter signal measurements as a set of down-range scattering centers parameterized by a Prony modeling technique. Next, using the relative range, size, and polarimetric shape of resulting parametric scattering centers, we form a description of the "substructure" of the target. Finally, we use these "structural descriptions" of measured backscatter signal to classify the target by the Modified Correlation Method. The results of experiments show that correct identification rates of five scale model aircraft are 92.19%, 83.7%, 81.2%, 90%, 95.8%. We suggest that reliable aircraft identification is possible provided structural feature are used.