Including Spatial Correlations in the Statistical MIMO Radar Target Model

Previous studies of statistical MIMO radar detection performance have used a target model that consists of a large number of point scatterers located within a rectangular target area. These point scatterers have scattering amplitudes that are complex random variables and are spatially uncorrelated, so that the target is a white noise process in space. Spatial correlations are introduced into the target model in this paper, and the impact of these correlations on MIMO radar system detection performance is analyzed.