基于杂波参数估计的空时极化自适应处理方法
Space-Time-Polarization Adaptive Processing Method Based on Clutter Parameter Estimation
-
摘要: 机载雷达面临的杂波强度大、分布范围广,空时自适应处理(space-time adaptive processing, STAP)可实现对强杂波的有效抑制,是当前机载雷达系统的关键技术之一。然而,当目标径向速度接近为零时,目标与杂波空时特性相近,此时在空时二维域中难以将目标从杂波中分辨出来。为提高对主瓣杂波中目标信号的检测概率,空时极化自适应处理在空时域的基础上增加极化域信息,通过在极化域区分目标与杂波信号,能够在一定程度上实现对主瓣杂波的抑制,从而增强机载雷达对慢速运动目标的探测能力。在进行空时极化自适应处理的过程中,极化域约束矢量如何选取会显著影响空时极化自适应处理性能。本文所提空时极化自适应处理方法基于对主瓣杂波的极化参数估计,首先对回波信号进行多普勒域降维STAP处理,并估计主瓣杂波的极化协方差矩阵,随后以使杂波抑制性能最优为准则确定极化域的约束矢量,最后通过空时极化自适应处理对主瓣杂波进行抑制,该方法运算量更低的同时回避了现有文献中主瓣杂波内的目标极化参数难以估计的问题。仿真结果表明,相对于传统空时自适应处理技术和基于最小方差无偏估计(minimum variance unbiased, MVU)法的空时极化自适应处理技术,本文所提方法输出剩余杂波功率更低且输出信杂噪比更高,显著提升了机载雷达的慢速运动目标检测性能。Abstract: Airborne radars are often faced with significant intensity and wide scope of clutter. Space-time adaptive processing is one of the key technologies of the modern airborne radar system, which can effectively suppress strong clutter. However, when the radial velocity of the target is close to zero, the target and clutter have similar space-time characteristics, and it is difficult to distinguish the target from the clutter in the two-dimensional space-time domain. To improve the detection probability of the target signal in the main lobe clutter, space-time-polarization adaptive processing introduces the polarization domain information on the basis of space-time domain. By distinguishing the target and clutter signal in the polarization domain, it can realize the suppression of the main lobe clutter to a certain extent, thus enhancing the airborne radar’s detection capability of the slow-moving target. In the process of space-time-polarization adaptive processing, the selection of the polarization domain constraint vector will significantly affect the performance. The space-time-polarization adaptive processing method proposed in this paper is based on the estimation of the polarization parameter of the main lobe clutter. First, Doppler-domain space-time dimensionality reduction processing is performed on the echo signal, and the polarization covariance matrix of the main lobe clutter is estimated. Next, the constraint vectors in the polarization domain are determined with the criterion of optimizing the performance of clutter suppression. Then, the main lobe clutter is suppressed by the space-time-polarization adaptive processing. This method requires lower computational complexity and avoids the difficulty of estimating the target polarization parameters in the main lobe clutter. Simulation results show that, compared with the conventional space-time adaptive and space-time polarization adaptive processing techniques based on the minimum variance unbiased estimation (MVU) method, the method proposed in this paper outputs lower residual clutter power and higher signal-to-clutter-plus-noise ratio (SCNR), which significantly improves the detection performance of the airborne radar for slow-moving targets.