Short CPI STAP for airborne radar

Circular, electronically scanned antenna arrays are currently being considered for use in airborne surveillance systems. These arrays are capable of pointing a beam in any direction at any time. This allows the radar to perform both 360° search and high update rate track modes simultaneously. To manage the radar´s resources efficiently, shorter coherent processing intervals (CPIs) should be used for nearby or large targets. However, shortening the CPI effects STAP performance by increasing the amount of Doppler space that is lost to the clutter . This paper analyzes the useable Doppler space performance of short CPI STAP. It is shown that CPIs as short as 6 pulses can be used to track high velocity targets. Short CPI STAP performance is analyzed theoretically and by simulation.