Analysis of the adaptive space time processing technique for airborne radar

The paper analyses the adaptive space/time processing technique for clutter rejection, and shows how it relates to the more traditional DPCA (displaced phase centre antenna) methods. It is demonstrated that, in SLAR (sideways looking airborne radar) applications, adaptive space/time processing can result in weight solutions equivalent to those required to perform DPCA. Sufficient conditions for the optimal space/time solution to be close to a DPCA type solution are given. Factors which influence the form of the adaptive space/time solution are considered and bounds on the number of eigenvalues of the space/time clutter covariance matrix are derived. Finally, simulation results, which lend support to the conclusions reached through theoretical analysis, are presented