Radar target recognition using bispectrum correlation

• Main Author: Cole, Zachary K.
• Other Authors: Borden, Brett
• Published: Monterey California. Naval Postgraduate School 2012
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10945/3386

Ship commanders and pilots make life or death decisions based on the information they have at their disposal at the instant a decision is made. One component of that information is whether a radar contact is an enemy or a friend. Various systems exist which try to answer that question based on the characteristics of signals emitted or scattered from the contact. The goal is to maximize the accuracy of identification in order to build trust that when the system tells the operator the contact is an incoming friendly, he knows that it is. This thesis examines the technique of using the bispectrum of backscattered radar energy to identify a contact. Bispectra allow the examination of multiple scattering contributions to the return. This technique is compared to one using radar range profiles. A library of sample radar signatures is built using computational radar cross section estimation tools and 3-D model aircraft. This library is the basis of a series of simulations with aircraft at multiple aspects and configurations to determine whether using the bispectrum enhances the performance of identification systems using range profiles. It is determined that a bispectrum method meets or exceeds the identification accuracy of a range profile method especially with high-bandwidth systems.