Space Based Radar (SBR) Bistatic Space-Time Adaptive Processing (STAP)

The objective of this effort is to develop interference mitigation algorithms for bistatic space-based radar (SBR) systems. The use of a bistatic SBR for wide-area surveillance offers many potential advantages: short path lengths, smaller satelliteconstellation sizes, clutter tuning potential, and stealth/survivability. Such a system requires good clutter and jamming mitigation ability. Space-time adaptive processing (STAP) has proven to be a powerful tool for use in clutter/jammer mitigation andits application to bistatic SBR surveillance offers potential benefits in this regard. Bistatic geometries offer unique signal processing challenges and they are both partly addressed and made somewhat more complex by the application of STAP. Thesechallenges include the non-stationarity of bistatic clutter as a function of range as well as the contamination of STAP training data by targets (the latter is an issue for all radars in dense target environments. Under the proposed program, ISL willaddress issues associated with using STAP in bistatic SBR and develop methods/techniques that allow STAP algorithms to meet bistatic SBR performance objectives. Our Phase I efforts will support the development of a simulation model in Phase II that will beused to fully develop and refine the algorithms for bistatic SBR. Successful completion of this program will result in methods which allow the implementation of STAP algorithms for bistatic radar applications. The use of these algorithms will allow abistatic SBR to successfully mitigate clutter and interference. The system concept and parameter definitions which are developed, along with the methods used to quantify bistatic clutter non-stationarity, will be a useful tool for both system designdefinition and STAP algorithm development. The algorithm implementation methods as well as the computer simulation developed under this program will have application to a variety of military and civilian applications that include SBR, airborne surveillancesystems, anti-drug surveillance systems, and communications systems.