Sidelobe forming for ground clutter and jammer suppression for airborne active array radar

We study the feasibility of ground clutter and jammer suppression in airborne active array radar by reducing the sidelobes in all directions pointing towards the ground or the horizon. We calculate the complex weighting necessary for achieving such an antenna pattern. Using simulation results, we demonstrate improvements in performance compared to uniform sidelobe reduction techniques, most notably a reduced main beam broadening. We also discuss implementation-related issues, such as the influence of quantisation and channel errors, and possible suboptimum beamforming techniques.