An analysis of adaptive DPCA

A low complexity space-time adaptive processing (STAP) scheme, called the adaptive displaced phase centered antenna (ADPCA) technique, is analyzed for airborne radar. Conditions are given under which this scheme is optimum for the case of observations with a known covariance matrix. An interesting interpretation of the ADPCA scheme is provided which may explain its good performance under some conditions. For some cases with noise and ground clutter only, the ADPCA scheme approximates a pulse cancelling scheme applied to optimally whitened pairs of pulses. The detection performance was analyzed for a case where the training data does not include the effects of a discrete scatterer that contaminates the range cell under test. Here the ADPCA scheme outperforms the scheme which is optimum for the case of a known covariance matrix