Generation of Clutter within a Structured Target Synthesizer

Abstract

This thesis addresses the development of a novel sea clutter module to enhance the digital image synthesizer (DIS) integrated circuit, so that the false-target image generated will be more resistant to the electronic protection used within inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR). The modified DIS design proposed incorporates the DIS false target with a sea clutter effect so that the interaction between the reflective surface of the target object and the background clutter is emulated. Furthermore, the random Doppler shift of the sea clutter derived from the novel DIS design can be used to ease the discontinuity in the cross-range domain. The DIS false-target image is then closer to that of a real target. The signal processing for the sea clutter module and the DIS and the ISAR compression of the modulated return are modeled to evaluate the performance of the modified DIS design. Such evaluation is based on investigating the discontinuity of the resultant target image in the cross-range domain and the correlation between the image and the background clutter. Finally, various radar wavelengths and sea states are used to verify the sea clutter is reasonably generated by the module under different environmental conditions. Also, different false-target profiles that represent the target in motion are used to confirm the integrity of the DIS design.