Physics-based Adaptation of Radar Clutters for Surface Radar Training Systems

To address the Navy"s need for a new environment model replicating various radar environmental effects for multiple surface ship radar training systems, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop new Scalable Physics-based Adaptation of Radar Clutter (SPARC) software with realistic and consistent replication of complex environmental effects on diverse radar types in surface radar training systems. SPARC combines both deterministic and statistical models to accurately represent environmental effects on the radar in terms of path loss and fading. The innovation in hybrid environmental effect modeling will enable SPARC to accurately characterize the effects from the land (vegetation and terrain), sea (sea states 1-5), and atmosphere (rain, fog, hail, etc.) in the radar. As a result, SPARC offers comprehensive modeling of realistic environmental effects, enabling dynamic characterization of channel quality as affected by the physical environment, including multipath, dispersion, fading, and attenuation, which directly addresses the Navy requirements. In Phase I, POC will demonstrate the feasibility of SPARC by developing its propagation model framework with realistic physics-based effects and a model validation plan. In Phase II, POC plans to implement and validate the comprehensive foliage propagation model to accurately predict RF propagation through multiple types and densities of vegetation, reaching TRL-5.