Fidelity and Complexity in Passive Radar Simulations

A case study of the trade off between fidelity and complexity is presented for a passive radar simulator. Although it is possible to accurately model the underlying physics, signal processing, and environment of a radar, the resulting model might be both too complex and too costly to evaluate. Instead, simplifications of various model attributes reduce the complexity and permit fast evaluation of performance metrics over large areas, such as the United States. Several model simplifications and their impact on the results are discussed.