Direction finding accuracy of sequential lobing under target amplitude fluctuations

Using recently developed statistical target fluctuation models, the accuracy of sequential lobing is analytically studied. The study shows that the sequential lobing method suffers from a significant performance loss, in comparison with the monopulse method, for the Rayleigh fluctuation model. For other fluctuation models, the performance loss gradually decreases as the amplitude spread associated with the fluctuation gets smaller. The present study aims to analytically quantify the mentioned accuracy loss because of target amplitude fluctuation and aims to assess the engineering utility of the sequential lobing method for practical applications. To that aim, two operational regimes, namely the noise-limited and target-fluctuation-limited operational regimes, are introduced and the boundary between regimes, separating acceptable and unacceptable performance loss with respect to monopulse method, is analytically determined.