Circular array STAP

Traditionally, space-time adaptive processing (STAP) has been applied to uniform linear arrays (ULAs). However, when considering the overall radar system, electronically scanned circular arrays have advantages: a better combination of even and continual angular and temporal coverage, and mechanical simplicity because it does not need to rotate. The unanswered question about circular arrays is their suitability for STAP. This paper shows that for the airborne early warning (AEW) mission, circular arrays are indeed STAP compatible. However, from the STAP perspective there may be a small loss in performance when compared to a ULA. With some care in the choice and implementation of the STAP algorithm the majority of the degradation is at close ranges, where the target returns are relatively strong. At long ranges the performance is barely affected