Principle of a hybrid data generator for data fusion of measured radar data with simulated data regarding system non-linearities

For evaluation of algorithms, especially for airborne radars, the use of flight trials data with different scenarios is essential. Initially the algorithms are tested with relatively simple scenarios where non-linearities do not play an important role. These tests then form the basis for more complicated scenarios. However, with increasing complexity, the cost of flight trials escalates and the chance of their failure becomes significant. For these reasons, a hybrid data generator has been developed which can combine measured data from relatively simple flight trials with simulated data from complicated target or jammer manoeuvres. The measured data should include clutter and noise signals and also targets of opportunity. The synthetic target generator (STG) should be able to simulate targets as well as CW and broadband noise jammers. The simulated hybrid data with scenario-specific target or jammer data are first coherently added to existing measured I,Q-radar data. In a second step, the simulated and measured data are combined taking into consideration the modeled system non-linearities. Further, any special antenna characteristics must be taken into account, where one beam is available on transmit and several sub-array beams on receive.