This paper studied the use of novel waveforms, adaptive RF transmit and STAP receive compensation techniques to overcome the limitations to MEO space-based radar GMTI detection, caused by both clutter range ambiguities enhanced by the earth's rotation, and antenna mechanical distortions. Both very large phased array and cylindrical reflector antennas were considered and it was demonstrated that the deleterious effects of these phenomena were greatly mitigated by the use of quadratic phase modulation waveforms, adaptive RF subarray phase shift compensation and STAP true target steering vector correction. Subsequent research investigated RF column phase shift corrections on distorted reflectors in conjunction with QPMW and STAP that resulted in a 2-3:1 improvement in GMTI MDV and NDBZW detection.

Inspec keywords: reflector antennas; space-time adaptive processing; waveform analysis; radar clutter; radar antennas

Other keywords: MEO space-based radar GMTI detection; cylindrical reflector antenna; clutter range ambiguity; distorted reflector; SBR GMTI performance; quadratic phase modulation waveform; STAP true target steering vector correction; adaptive RF subarray phase shift compensation; STAP receive compensation technique; adaptive signal processing; adaptive RF transmit technique; phased array; GMTI MDV; QPMW; MEO antenna mechanical distortion; NDBZW detection; waveform diversity; RF column phase shift correction

Subjects: Single antennas; Radar equipment, systems and applications; Signal processing and detection; Mathematical analysis