THE DELETERIOUS EFFECTS OF RANDOME DEPOLARIZATION ON POLARIMETRIC PROCESSED SEEKER PERFORMANCE INCLUDING CORRUPTION OF THE PROCESSED DATA WHEREIN THE ABILITY TO ACHIEVE TARGET DISCRIMINATION AND/OR CLASSIFICATION IS REDUCED.

THE DELETERIOUS EFFECTS OF RANDOME DEPOLARIZATION ON POLARIMETRIC PROCESSED SEEKER PERFORMANCE INCLUDING CORRUPTION OF THE PROCESSED DATA WHEREIN THE ABILITY TO ACHIEVE TARGET DISCRIMINATION AND/OR CLASSIFICATION IS REDUCED. IF THE SYSTEM USES MONOPULSE TRACKING, A SECONDARY IMPLICATION OF RADOME POLARIZATION IS AN INCREASED SYSTEM VULNERABILITY TO NULL JAMMER-TYPE COUNTERMEASURES. THIS RESEARCH WILL CONSOLIDATE THREE EXISTING MWT RADOME CODES: 1) RADOME TRANSMISSION CODE (RACEP), 2) POLARIMETRIC SEEKER MODEL (RADSYM), AND 3) FFT PROCESSOR CODE (FFT). MWT PROPOSES TO EXERCISE THESE CODES TO INVESTIGATE FFTPROCESSED POLARIMETRIC THEORETICAL TARGET RETURNS (SPECTRA) UNDER VARIOUS RADOME CONDITIONS (WALL CONSTRUCTION, WALL ORDER AND SHAPE). THEN, USING FREQUENCY AGILE DATA AVAILABLE FROM THE EGLIN AFB TABILS DATA BANK, MWT WILL INVESTIGATE THE ACTURAL IMPACT OF RADOME DEPOLARIZATION ON RADAR PROCESSED DATA OF TARGETS INCLUDING CLUTTER CONDITIONS.