Clutter Suppression for Airborne Radar with Cylindrical Array Antennas

Cylindrical array antennas have three merits such as all-orientation space scanning, flexible search and track mode and good beam bearing relative to common planar array antennas. In this paper, firstly the differences between cylindrical array and uniform planar array are discussed in terms of eigenvalue distribution of the clutter covariance matrix and clutter distribution at range, and the conclusion of space-time clutter spectrum nonhomogeneity at range for airborne radar with cylindrical array antennas is gained. Secondly three novel clutter suppression methods are proposed to address the problem of clutter spectrum nonhomogeneity at range. Finally, simulation results verify the correctness of the proposed methods.