Target Estimation, Detection, and Tracking

In this article, we explore the adaptive design of radar polarization waveforms for optimal performance, when the statistical properties of the target and clutter are unknown. We focus on a closed-loop system that sequentially estimates the target and clutter scattering parameters, and then uses these estimates to select the polarization of the subsequent waveforms. We demonstrate that the radar system performance is significantly improved when the polarization of the transmitted signal is optimally and adaptively selected to match the polarimetric aspects of the target and environment. In particular, we provide an overview of our recent results showing that the adaptive design of the radar signal polarization enables achieving optimal performance in several operating modes, including detection, estimation, and tracking.