A radically new target detection process

Conventional radar detection of a target in the presence of external interference and thermal noise follows the classic matched filter approach by spatially and temporally processing multiple samples of the received signals. This process is sometimes referred to as the space time adaptive process (STAP). This process has two deficiencies in that multiple somewhat stationary time samples are required and that the process does not work well when both the interference and target are collocated in the mainbeam of the radar. In contrast, a very promising new target detection technique is developed in this paper, which is capable of detecting and extracting signal characteristics using only single time samples from multiple antenna elements. This process inherently does not require any of the signals to be stationary because only one instant of time is used and furthermore the process allows target detection even when the interference is not resolved in angle because the process does not require a null to be placed on the interference. Although the new process is computationally intense, the current development of active digital array radars and hardware technology make the processing of this detection technique possible in the near future.