Advanced Azimuth Estimation Techniques

Airborne GMTI radars that are used to detect ground-moving targets concealed beneath the forest canopy are characterized by small radar baselines and UHF carrier frequencies. The azimuth resolution of the radar beam and the resulting target azimuth error ellipses are quite large. Since accurate target range and azimuth location is desired to support precise location, targeting, and tracking of concealed enemy targets, future UHF GMTI systems need innovative ways to improve azimuth estimation accuracy. The Phase I SBIR, which focused on rotorcraft UAV foliage-penetrating radar, demonstrated favorable performance of monostatic, bistatic and multi-lateration target location techniques. In Phase II, an optimum set of advanced target location techniques using single and multiple UHF sensor platforms to locate concealed dismounted troops and ground vehicles will be developed. Techniques to be investigated include super-resolution, STAP, DPCA, stereo and other optimal estimators. The target angle and CEP performance of these innovative concepts will be quantified using high-fidelity radar data cubes simulated by TSC. Variations in platform spacing and geometry, limitations imposed by wind-induced platform motion errors and adaptive compensation techniques will also be investigated.