Performance of radar receivers in the presence of noise and intentional interference

Abstract

This thesis is devoted to analyzing the problem of masking a reflected radar signal, in order to degrade the radar receiver's performance. This is to be accomplished by appropriately choosing the Power Spectral Density (PSD) of a power constrained colored noise interference to be generated either by the target itself or by pre-positioned "friendly" noise makers. The goal in either case is to generate interference signals that result in decreased receiver probability of detection, P(D), for a given receiver probability of false alarm, P(F). Efforts to identify appropriate PSD's of the power constrained interference were carried out by evaluating the receivers' P(D) as a function of P(F) for two specific target models. The performance results for the various receivers investigated demonstrate that the noise interference generated by the noise makers can achieve significant levels of degradation, while the target generated noise interference tends to improve rather than degrade the radar receiver's performance. In all cases considered, the sine squared shaped noise interference PSD is more effective at degrading the receiver performance than any other kind of PSD analyzed.