Introduction to Radar Systems
Clutter Rejection
MTI and Pulse Doppler Processing
Radar Course_1.ppt ODonnell 10-26-01
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
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Radar Course_2.ppt ODonnell (2) 6-19-02
MTI and Doppler Processing
Propagation Medium Target Cross Section
Transmitter
Waveform Generator Signal Processor Pulse Compression Doppler Processing
Antenna
Receiver
A/D
Main Computer Tracking & Parameter Estimation Console / Display Recording
Detection
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How to Handle Noise and Clutter
Radar Course_4.ppt ODonnell (2) 6-19-02
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How to Handle Noise and Clutter
If he doesnt take his arm off my shoulder Im going to hide his stash of Hershey Bars !!
Why does Steve always talk me into doing ridiculous stunts like this ?
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Naval Air Defense Scenario
Moving Target Indicator (MTI) and Pulse-Doppler (PD) processing use Doppler to reject clutter and enhance detection of moving targets Smaller targets require more clutter suppression
Chaff Rain Clutter Birds Ground Clutter
Sea Clutter
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Outline
Introduction Moving Target Indicator (MTI) Techniques Pulse Doppler Processing Techniques Summary
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Terminology
Moving Target Indicator (MTI) Techniques
Pulsed Doppler (PD) Techniques
Just separate moving targets from clutter Use short waveforms (two or three pulses) Do not provide target velocity estimation
Separate targets into different velocity regimes in addition to canceling clutter Provide good estimates of target velocity Use long waveforms -- (many pulses, tens to thousands of pulses)
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Doppler Frequency
10000 Doppler Frequency (Hz)
1000
35
Hz 10 GH z 3 z GH Hz M
At S-Band (2800 MHz) fd ~ 1 kHz / 40 m/s
0 45
100
0 15
Hz
Doppler Frequency
2V fd =
1000
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
10 1
Radar Course_9.ppt ODonnell (2) 6-19-02
10 100 Radial Velocity (m/s)
Example Clutter Spectra
70 60 Relative Power (dB) 50 40
Rain Clutter Land Clutter Sea Clutter
Clutter comes from same range/angle cell as a target Clutter RCS can be much larger than targets of interest (>50 dB) Characteristics vary with terrain (land/sea), weather, etc. PPI Display of Heavy Rain
30 20 10 0
Aircraft Chaff Clutter Birds
-10 -20 0
50 100 150 Radial Velocity (m/s)
200
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Radar Course_10.ppt ODonnell (2) 6-19-02
MTI and Pulse Doppler Waveforms
Tc = MTr Tr T
Time
T T B B T Trr f frr T Tc c M M
= = = = 1/T 1/T = = = = 1/T 1/Trr = =T T /T /Trr = = MT MTrr = =
Pulse Pulse length length Bandwidth Bandwidth Pulse Pulse repetition repetition interval interval (PRI) (PRI) Pulse Pulse repetition repetition frequency frequency (PRF) (PRF) Duty Duty Factor Factor Coherent Coherent processing processing interval interval (CPI) (CPI) Number Number of of pulses pulses in in the the CPI CPI M M= = 2, 2, 3, 3, or or sometimes sometimes 4 4 for for MTI MTI M M usually usually much much greater greater for for Pulse Pulse Doppler Doppler
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Radar Course_11.ppt ODonnell (2) 6-19-02
Data Collection for Doppler Processing
Time Range
Pulse 1 Sample 12 e.g. 8.3 km Pulse 2 Sample 12 e.g. 8.3 km Pulse 3 Sample 12 e.g. 8.3 km
Samples at same range gate
A/D
In-phase and Quadrature Sampling
Complex I / Q samples (the complex envelope of received waveform)
Pulse Number (Slow time) 1 1 Sample No. Range - > L
Radar Course_12.ppt ODonnell (2) 6-19-02
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Outline
Introduction Moving Target Indicator (MTI) Techniques Pulse Doppler Processing Techniques Summary
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Moving Target Indicator (MTI) Processing
Notch out Doppler spectrum occupied by clutter Provide broad Doppler passband everywhere else Blind speeds occur at multiples of the pulse repetition
frequency
When sample frequency (PRF) equals a multiple of the Doppler frequency
Clutter Notch MTI Filter Blind Speeds
Clutter Spectrum 0 fr = 1/T 2fr MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Radar Course_14.ppt ODonnell (2) 6-19-02
Two Pulse MTI Canceller
Fixed Clutter echoes
If one pulse is subtracted from the previous pulse, fixed clutter echoes will cancel and will not be detected
Moving targets
Moving targets change in amplitude from one pulse to the next because of their Doppler frequency shift. If one pulse is subtracted from the other, the result will be an uncancelled residue
Block Diagram
Delay Tr=1/PRF
Subtract
Input
Output
Voutput = Vi+1 - Vi
Radar Course_15.ppt ODonnell (2) 6-19-02
Figure by MIT OCW.
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
MTI Improvement Factor
Sin and Cin - Input target and clutter power per pulse Sout(fd) and Cout(fd) Output target and clutter power from
60 Relative Power (dB) Land Clutter 40 20 0 Aircraft 0
Radar Course_16.ppt ODonnell (2) 6-19-02
processor at Doppler frequency, fd (Signal / Clutter)out MTI Improvement Factor = I(fd) = (Signal / Clutter)in f d
MTI Improvement Factor
Rain Clutter
Cin Sout I(fd) = x Sin Cout
fd
-20
50 100 150 Radial Velocity (m/s)
200
Clutter Attenuation
Signal Gain
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MTI Improvement Factor Examples
Spread Clutter (v=1 m/s, c=10 Hz )
60
2-Pulse MTI
50
2 2 Pulse Pulse MTI MTI 3 3 Pulse Pulse MTI MTI
Voutput = Vi - Vi-1
3-Pulse MTI
Improvement Factor (dB)
40 30 20 10 0 0 Frequency = 2800 MHz CNR = 50 dB per pulse fd = 1000 Hz 200 400 600 Doppler Frequency (Hz) 800 1000
Voutput = Vi - 2Vi-1 + Vi-2
Three-pulse canceller provides wider clutter notch and greater clutter attenuation
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Staggered PRFs to Increase Blind Speed
MTI Frequency Response
Fixed 2 kHz PRI at S-Band
0
100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
SNR Relative to Single Pulse (dB)
-10 -20 0
Staggering or changing the time between pulses will raise the blind speed Although the staggered PRFs remove the blind speeds that would have been obtained with a constant PRF, there will be a new much higher blind speed
Radial Velocity (m/s) Staggered 2 kHz, 1.754 kHz PRI
0
-10 -20 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
Radial Velocity (m/s)
Radar Course_18.ppt ODonnell (2) 6-19-02 321-00423 HGT 03/04/98
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Outline
Introduction Moving Target Indicator (MTI) Techniques Pulse Doppler Processing Techniques
Pulse Doppler Filtering Concept
Basic Concepts Example - Moving Target Detector (MTD)
Range Doppler Ambiguities Airborne Radar
Summary
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Data Collection for Doppler Processing
Time Range
Pulse 1 Sample 12 e.g. 8.3 km Pulse 2 Sample 12 e.g. 8.3 km Pulse 3 Sample 12 e.g. 8.3 km
Samples at same range gate
A/D
In-phase and Quadrature Sampling
Complex I / Q samples (the complex envelope of received waveform)
Pulse Number (Slow time) 1 1 Sample No. Range - > L
Radar Course_20.ppt ODonnell (2) 6-19-02
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Pulse Doppler Processing
Doppler Filter Bank
Filter 1 (f1, v1) Filter 2 (f2, v2) Filter 3 (f3,v3) M Doppler velocity bins out Filter M (fM,vM)
M pulses in
Coherent integration of all pulses of a CPI Clutter rejection
Doppler Frequency Doppler Velocity
Resolving targets into different velocity segments and allowing for finegrain target radial velocity estimation
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Radar Course_21.ppt ODonnell (2) 6-19-02
Moving Target Detector (MTD)
8 or Greater Pulse Doppler Filter Bank
Digitized Radar Echoes From Each Range Cell
Adaptive Thresholding Clutter Map Filter
Post Processing Thresholding Output Detections
Zero Velocity Filter
Pulse Doppler filtering on groups of 8 or greater pulses with a fine grained clutter map. Aircraft are detected in ground clutter and / or rain with the Doppler filter bank & use of 2 PRFs. Birds and ground traffic are rejected in post processing, using Doppler velocity and a 2nd fine grained clutter map
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ASR-9 8-Pulse Filter Bank
Courtesy of Northrop Grumman Used with permission. ASR-9 Filter Bank 10 Magnitude (dB) 0 Magnitude (dB) -10 -20 -30 -40 -50 -60 -70 0
Radar Course_23.ppt ODonnell (2) 6-19-02
ASR-9 One Doppler Filter 10 0 -10 -20 -30 -40 -50 -60 Aircraft Rain Echo
20
40 60 80 Radial Velocity (kts)
100
-70 0
20
40 60 80 Radial Velocity (kts)
100
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MTD Performance in Rain
Unprocessed Radar Returns Time History of Radar Tracker Output August 1975, FAA Test Center
Doppler Spectrum of Rain
Received Power (dB)
80 60 40 20 0 60 Kt 0 + 60 Kt
Doppler Velocity
Radar Course_24.ppt ODonnell (2) 6-19-02
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Doppler Ambiguities
Sample Times
Pulse Doppler waveform samples target with sampling rate = PRF Sampling causes aliasing at multiples of PRF Two targets with Doppler frequencies separated by an integer multiple of the PRF are indistinguishable Unambiguous velocity
Moving V=3Vu Stationary V=0 Moving V=Vu
Vu =
fr 2
0 1 2 3
Time / PRI
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Range Ambiguities
Target 1 Target 2
R1
R 2 = R1 + R u
True Range
Radar Range
Unambiguous range Range ambiguities occur when echoes from one pulse are not all received before the next pulse Strong close targets (clutter) can mask far weak targets
cTr Ru = 2
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Radar Course_26.ppt ODonnell (2) 6-19-02
Unambiguous Range and Doppler Velocity
Unambiguous Range (km)
1500 1000 500 150 50 15 5 1.5
Unambiguous Velocity (m/s)
0 15
Hz
Vu =
M Hz
z GH
10 G
fr 2
0 45
100
Hz
35
Hz G
cTr c = Ru = 2 2 fr
10
100
1000
10000
100000 MIT Lincoln Laboratory
PRF (Hz)
Radar Course_27.ppt ODonnell (2) 6-19-02
Sensitivity Time Control (STC)
Deliberately reduce radar sensitivity at short ranges
Why?
Both Targets Give Returns with Same Signal-to-Noise ratio
0 dBsm Aircraft at 200 km -64 dBsm Mosquito at 5 km
Attenuation of radar return by R-4 will result in constant SNR as a function of range for a constant cross section target STC cannot be used if the radars waveform is ambiguous in range
Targets which are beyond the ambiguous range of the radar will be attenuated, because they folded over to close ranges
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Classes of MTI and Pulse Doppler Radars
Low PRF Range Measurement Velocity Measurement Low PRF Wind blown clutter may be a problem Can use STC
Unambiguous
Medium PRF
Ambiguous
High PRF
Very Ambiguous
Very Ambiguous
Ambiguous
Unambiguous
Medium PRF Wind blown clutter may be a problem Range eclipsing losses Far out targets compete with near in clutter Cant use STC Ambiguities hardest to remove
High PRF Range eclipsing losses Far out targets compete with near in clutter Cant use STC
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Velocity Ambiguity Resolution
Unfold detections out to some maximum velocity
CPI #1 PRF = f1
f1 2f1 3f1 4f1 5f1
Blind Zones
CPI #2 PRF = f2
Individual CPI unambiguous velocity regions f2 2f2 3f2 4f2
Doppler (Velocity)
Doppler (Velocity)
Split dwell into multiple CPIs at different PRFs
Scan to scan, even pulse-to-pulse changes also possible
Moves blind velocities to ensure detection of all non-zero velocity targets True target velocity is where best correlation across CPIs occurs Choose PRFs so that least common multiple occurs above desired maximum unambiguous velocity
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Radar Course_30.ppt ODonnell (2) 6-19-02
Examples of Airborne Radar
E-2C APS-125 F-16 APG-66 , 68
JOINT STARS E-8A APY-3
F-18 APG-65 F-15 APG-63 , 70
AWACS E-3A APY-1
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Radar Course_32.ppt ODonnell (2) 6-19-02
MIT LincolnFigure Laboratory by MIT OCW. MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Airborne Radar Clutter Spectrum
Illustrative example without Pulse Doppler ambiguities
Figure by MIT OCW.
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Airborne Radar Clutter Spectrum
Illustrative example without Pulse Doppler ambiguities
Figure by MIT OCW.
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Displaced Phase Center Antenna (DPCA) Concept
T1 T2
If the aircraft motion is exactly compensated by the movement of the phase center of the antenna beam, then there will be no clutter spread due to aircraft motion, and the clutter can be cancelled with a two pulse canceller
344334_2.ppt RMO 9-01-00
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Summary
Moving Target Indicator (MTI) techniques
Doppler filtering techniques that reject stationary clutter No velocity measurement Blind speeds are regions of Doppler space where targets with that Doppler velocity cannot be detected Changing the PRF between sets of pulses can alleviate the blind speed problem MTI techniques have a limited capability to suppress rain clutter
Pulse Doppler techniques
Used to optimally reject various forms of radar clutter
Measurement of target radial velocity Moving Target Detector techniques are an example of optimum Doppler processing and associated adaptive thresholding
Radar Course_36.ppt ODonnell (2) 6-19-02
Ambiguities in range and Doppler velocity can be resolved by transmitting multiple bursts of pulses with different PRFs Airborne radars use multiple PRF waveforms to suppress clutter
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References
Skolnik, M., Introduction to Radar Systems, New York,
McGraw-Hill, 3rd Edition, 2001
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