Man-made target backscattering behavior: applicability of conventional radar resolution theory

Radar is not achieving its potential performance. The reasons for this are discussed. The backscattering behavior of man-made targets is much more complicated than conventionally modeled. This makes the conventional resolution theory inappropriate when man-made targets are highly resolved, with the consequence that conventional signal processing and image analysis techniques miss much of the information in the radar returns. The type of backscattering behavior we have observed with real data, and how it affects resolution performance is discussed here. It is also shown that one must analyze the complex image rather than the intensity image.