A Theory of Target Glint or Angular Scintillation in Radar Tracking

A theory is presented to describe the statistical aspects of tracking a complex isolated structure, such as an aircraft or naval vessel, by radar. The results are expressible in simplest form when the target subtends an angle small compared with the beamwidth. Other situations require special consideration and treatment, but can be attacked by the same general methods. However, when the angle subtended by the target is small, a single description applies to all radar tracking systems. An apparent and an effective radar center are defined and their statistical properties derived. Special treatment is given to additional noise arising in conical scanning due to amplitude fluctuations as such. The theory provides information relating to the spectra as well as to the probability densities and rms values of the pertinent quantities. It must be understood that the theory is approximate, is based on a particular model of the target, and leaves the determination of certain critical parameters to experiment in the case of any particular target.