Radar target signal modeling and validation

Abstract

The performance of a radar system is greatly affected by the elec tromagnetic scattering properties of the targets to be tracked. A key target parameter is the radar cross section, defined as an effective area that scatters incident power in the direction of the radar receiver.

Two target modeling approaches used at Raytheon and their validation are described. One of the methods computes a com posite signal and equivalent cross section and glint from a num ber of discrete point scatterers. The other method, a statistical model, combines filtered and scaled noise sources from a ran dom number generator to produce the desired results.

The outputs presented include plots of sample radar cross sec tion, glint and angle tracking error histories as functions of target aspect and target aspect rate. There are also comparisons of results computed by the two methods, as well as with actual flight data.