In this chapter a distributed array of radar apertures is consider to determine the presence of a target within a chosen region of space. The overall detection capability is limited by interference. This interference may be caused by the radar signal itself, e.g., clutter or by electronic counter-measures (ECM) such as jamming. The interference is far stronger than any potential target signal and, therefore, traditional non-adaptive techniques are inadequate for reliable detection. Unlike a traditional array of co-located sensors, each element in the distributed aperture can transmit at its own center frequency. This allows for each element in the aperture to process the signals over transmissions independently and without mutual interference.

Inspec keywords: radar clutter; electronic countermeasures; radar signal processing; object detection; sensors; electromagnetic interference; space-time adaptive processing

Other keywords: electronic counter-measures; frequency-diverse distributed aperture radar; jamming; radar signal; distributed aperture; ECM; colocated sensors; space-time adaptive processing; target detection; interference; clutter

Subjects: Sensing devices and transducers; Radar equipment, systems and applications; Electromagnetic compatibility and interference; Signal processing and detection