Determination of Maximal Positioning Range of Distributed Coherent Receiving Radar Using Electromagnetic Scattering

Coherent processing of distributed radar has huge advantages over processing of a single radar. In this paper, maximal positioning range of distributed coherent receiving radar is studied. Coherent receiving gain is defined to evaluate the performance of distributed coherent receiving radar using electromagnetic scattering of targets. Based on Fourier transform relationship between the scattering electric field (E-field) and the mode scattering response matrix of a target, theoretical maximal positioning range between two receiving sub-apertures is determined by analyzing the defined coherent receiving gain. Moreover, to verify the proposed maximal positioning range, scattering E-fields of three similar shaped targets are calculated using simulation tool FEKO. It is shown that the simulation results are consistent with the theoretical analysis, which demonstrates that the proposed maximal positioning range is effective for designing distributed coherent receiving radar.