High fidelity modeling of space-based radar

Space based radar design are becoming more affordable given new technologies of solid state active apertures and advanced digital signal processing. However, it is important to be able to synthesize the design of the system with sufficient detail to anticipate the radar system´s operation and interference effects expected in a space environment. This includes simulation of site specific clutter with realistic Earth rotation and statistical variation, wideband propagation of the signal from multiple phase center aperture, and impact of channel match and errors on adaptive processing for detecting targets. The research laboratory space time adaptive processing (RLSTAP) has been developed as a variable fidelity radar simulation tool to captures these effects. The paper will describe results of modeling an L-band multimode space based radar, including effective of ambiguities from antenna subarrays, and range and Doppler waveforms on adaptive processing.