MIMO radar target detection with parametric scattering correlation model

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radars utilize various sources of diversity to improve the performance of the radar. A MIMO radar in which angular diversity is achieved by using widely distributed antennas has been proposed to reduce the impact of the fluctuations of the target radar cross-section. This type of system is also known as the statistical MIMO radar. Typically, it has been assumed that the signals received by different antennas are either fully correlated or independent depending on the configuration. In this paper, we assume more realistically that the scattering from the target is correlated. We show that taking the correlation of the scattered signals into account can improve the probability of detecting the target. This is achieved by using a parametric model for the scattering which allows one to efficiently estimate the scattering covariance matrix. The numerical examples demonstrate that the probability of detection remains good even when parameters of the model are inaccurate.