Skywave radar spatial adaptive processing with quiescent pattern control

A problem in radar processing is that of providing operators with interpretable spatial spectra. These spectra are most tractable to the operator when the noise field is near-isotropic, and a low sidelobe response array pattern has been applied. This paper considers the method of soft response constraints for controlling the array pattern between the extremes of conventional beamforming and minimum variance distortionless response beamforming. A factor to control the response is developed, based on eigen-analysis of the spatial noise covariance matrix. An example of usage on skywave radar data with simulated interference and target signals is given