Exploitation of the Maritime Evaporation Duct Utilizing MIMO Radar

The security of the United States"naval ships, ports, and waters are of tantamount importance. These crucial assets are vulnerable to attack from small, nimble adversaries that can hide within the near-constant evaporation duct present over large bodies of water. This scenario can be quite trying for conventional radar systems, which were not designed to detect and track such small vessels and objects so close to the surface of the ocean. We propose to engage this difficult scenario in two ways. First, we will develop a comprehensive electromagnetic model for radar signal propagation within the evaporation duct. We also propose to utilize the flexibility of MIMO radar systems to fully capitalize on the benefits of ducted propagation. We plan to accomplish this by developing cognitive methods to optimally adapt our transmitted waveforms and receive filters to take advantage of the evaporation duct. We propose to evaluate the performance of these methods using modeling and simulation to obtain an accurate portrait of the advantages and disadvantages of the developed methods. Finally, we plan to collect experimental data using a MIMO radar system in order to aid our understanding and refine our electromagnetic model.