Space-time adaptive processing for space based radar

Spaced-based radar space-time adaptive processing (STAP) in a heterogeneous clutter environment is addressed. An efficient Kalman Filter implementation of the normalized form of the parametric adaptive matched filter (NPAMF) is introduced and shown to perform well against a detailed, ground moving target indication (GMTI) simulation. The number of secondary data range cells required by NPAMF is much smaller than the product of spatial channels and pulses and, thus, NPAMF is attractive for low sample support applications. Results indicate that the same minimum detectable velocity can be realized with about half the SBR aperture if conventional Doppler processing is replaced with STAP, in particular, NPAMF.