Robust STAP for HFSWR in dense target scenarios with nonhomogeneous clutter

Space-time adaptive processing (STAP) algorithms generally address interference, whether homogeneous or not, and are tested in environments with a single target or with targets that do not interact with each other. However, a high frequency surface-wave radar (HFSWR) monitoring off-shore activity likely sees many targets closely spaced in angle, Doppler and range. Target detection in HFSWR is further complicated by the nonhomogeneous sea clutter. In this paper we develop a two-stage STAP algorithm, based on the previously developed fast fully adaptive (FFA) approach, for the dense target scenarios of interest. The proposed algorithm is tested on measured data provided by Raytheon Canada. Our results show that the modified FFA scheme is able to detect targets not seen by the current scheme used to generate the provided track data.