Range-recursive space-time adaptive processing (STAP) with a circular airborne radar antenna

In this paper, space-time adaptive processing (STAP) for clutter rejection in airborne radar is considered using a uniform circular antenna array. Indeed, this technique is usually employed in case of a uniform linear antenna array while the advantages of a circular antenna were recently highlighted [2]. Our contribution is two fold. We first analyze the effects of a circular antenna on the clutter properties and we then propose the use of a range recursive sub-space-based STAP algorithm of linear complexity to mitigate the potential range dependency of the neighboring snapshots. Simulations exhibit the high performance of the proposed approach to track the range non stationarity implied by the geometry of the antenna array and by the configuration of the radar: we here investigate both side looking and non side looking configurations.