Radar clutter suppression system
First Claim
1. A method of suppressing sidelobe clutter in a radar signal processing system that receives a radar video stream from a radar antenna scanner and applies Sensitivity Control (SC) processing to the radar video stream based on an SC threshold profile that defines an echo return intensity threshold over range, the method implemented by a processor of the radar signal processing system and comprising:
- receiving the radar video stream from the radar antenna scanner;
determining the peak echo return intensity level (herein;
peak return level) at each range based on radar video stream representing a full scanner sweep stored in memory of the radar signal processing system;
selectively modifying the SC threshold profile based on the determined peak echo return intensity levels from the full scanner sweep and an antenna sidelobe margin factor that is based on the antenna characteristics of the radar antenna scanner to thereby selectively reduce the sensitivity of the SC processing based on the determined peak echo return intensity levels and the antenna sidelobe margin factor; and
applying SC processing to the radar video stream based on the selectively modified SC threshold profile to generate an SC processed radar video stream having reduced sidelobe clutter.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Sidelobe suppression methods and systems for use in processing radar video streams generated by rotational radar antenna scanners. The sidelobe suppression methods function in parallel with traditional Sensitivity Control (SC) processing by selectively reducing sensitivity where necessary depending on sidelobe suppression schemes that can be either directional, omni-directional (non-directional), or a combination of these.
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Citations
37 Claims
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1. A method of suppressing sidelobe clutter in a radar signal processing system that receives a radar video stream from a radar antenna scanner and applies Sensitivity Control (SC) processing to the radar video stream based on an SC threshold profile that defines an echo return intensity threshold over range, the method implemented by a processor of the radar signal processing system and comprising:
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receiving the radar video stream from the radar antenna scanner; determining the peak echo return intensity level (herein;
peak return level) at each range based on radar video stream representing a full scanner sweep stored in memory of the radar signal processing system;selectively modifying the SC threshold profile based on the determined peak echo return intensity levels from the full scanner sweep and an antenna sidelobe margin factor that is based on the antenna characteristics of the radar antenna scanner to thereby selectively reduce the sensitivity of the SC processing based on the determined peak echo return intensity levels and the antenna sidelobe margin factor; and applying SC processing to the radar video stream based on the selectively modified SC threshold profile to generate an SC processed radar video stream having reduced sidelobe clutter. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A radar signal processing system that receives a radar video stream from a radar antenna scanner and applies Sensitivity Control (SC) processing to the radar video stream based on an SC threshold profile that defines an echo intensity threshold over range, the system comprising:
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a processor; and memory associated with the processor; and wherein the processor is configured to; receive the radar video stream from the radar antenna scanner; determine the peak echo return intensity level (herein;
peak return level) at each range based on radar video stream representing a full scanner sweep stored in memory;selectively modify the SC threshold profile based on the determined peak echo return intensity levels from the full scanner sweep and an antenna sidelobe margin factor that is based on the antenna characteristics of the radar antenna scanner to thereby selectively reduce the sensitivity of the SC processing based on the determined peak echo return intensity levels and the antenna sidelobe margin factor; and apply SC processing to the radar video stream based on the selectively modified SC threshold profile to generate an SC processed radar video stream having reduced sidelobe clutter. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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Specification