Effects of signal decorrelation on pulse-compressed waveforms for nadir-looking spaceborne radar

Pulse-compressed waveforms for partially coherent radar return signals are formulated with an incoherent-scatter autocorrelation function, ρ(τ). Numerical calculations are made for a nadir-looking spaceborne radar with linear FM pulses, and effects of signal decorrelation on the compressed waveforms are qualitatively evaluated. The calculations indicate that the transmitted pulse width should be shorter than half the correlation time, defined as the time at which ρ(τ) decreases by 0.1, in order to keep signal decorrelation effects negligible