On the benefits of space-time adaptive processing (STAP) in bistatic airborne radar

This paper has examined the clutter angle-Doppler inter-relationships for bistatic airborne radar. It has been shown that there are significant differences between the monostatic and bistatic clutter rejection problems. In particular, it has been shown that bistatic airborne radar clutter exhibits the following characteristics: 1. Interactions of the mainlobe of one antenna with the sidelobes of the other. 2. Clutter regions where large changes of Doppler frequency correspond to small changes of angular location. 3. Variation of the clutter angle-Doppler relationship due to topographic features (e.g. variations in ground height). Simulation examples demonstrating how the mainlobe/sidelobe beam interactions can affect STAP clutter rejection performance have been presented.