Handling range-ambiguities in registration-based range-dependence compensation for conformal array STAP

We consider space-time adaptive processing (STAP) when the radar returns are recorded by a conformal antenna array (CAA). The statistics of the secondary data snapshots used to estimate the optimum weight vector are not identically distributed with respect to range, thus preventing the customary STAP processor from achieving its optimum performance. Realistic compensation of the range dependence of the secondary data requires to account for range ambiguities in the clutter returns. We propose an innovative extension of our registration-based range-dependence compensation algorithm. Our extension allows to obtain an accurate estimate of the interference-plus-noise covariance matrix even when the ground clutter return for a given fast-time sampling instant includes returns from isoranges that are ambiguous in range. The performance in terms of signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio loss is promizing.