Phase-Modulated Waveform Evaluation and Selection Strategy in Compound-Gaussian Clutter

This correspondence introduces a waveform evaluation and selection strategy (ESS) for application of optimized phase-modulated (PM) waveforms to mitigate compound-Gaussian clutter in radar. This strategy addresses the trade-off between potential improvement in detection performance from adaptive design of PM waveforms and the cost this entails in terms of system resources. An evaluation factor is introduced to quantify the performance improvement obtained by design and transmission of an optimized PM waveform in the second sub-dwell of a two-stage clutter mitigation scheme versus using linear frequency modulated (LFM) waveform in a sub-dwell. This evaluation factor provides the basis for the proposed ESS, the efficacy of which is demonstrated in simulations.