Clutter Rank of STAP in MIMO Radar With Waveform Diversity

Abstract

In recent years, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar systems with space-time adaptive processing (STAP) have been proposed to improve radar performance. For MIMO radars with STAP, one big concern is the clutter rank. Current studies employ the rule of time-bandwidth product to predict the clutter rank of MIMO radars using orthogonal waveforms. This paper investigates clutter rank estimation for MIMO radar systems with more flexible waveform diversity, where waveforms are not constrained to be orthogonal. Under general waveform assumption, we have derived the clutter covariance matrix as a function of waveform covariance matrix (WCM). The clutter rank is then found to be determined by the rank and structure of the WCM. For different waveform cases, the WCM may be either full rank or rank deficient. Rules for estimation of clutter rank in these cases are provided and demonstrated by numerical simulations.