Radar Fundamentals

Format

The course runs over two consecutive days. Practical sessions, also with the use of MATLAB, will be interleaved with classic lectures. Practical sessions are intended to strengthen the understanding of the theory and are based on programming and running routines that implement algorithms that are explained during the lectures. The attendees will be familiarised with the problems and will understand how to set system parameters to achieve desired performances.

Course Outline

• Radar equation and RCS
• Radar detection theory – Neyman-Pearson criterion
• Incoherent and coherent pulsed radar
• CFAR detectors
• Clutter
• Ambiguity function and pulse compression
• Doppler processing (MTI-MTD)

Syllabus

The course starts with an introductory description of basic radar concepts and terms. The radar equation needed for the basic understanding of radar is then developed, along with the concept of radar cross-section. The lectures then focus on the general schemes of coherent and incoherent radar systems and on the statistical models of the target received signals. Some fundamentals on the detection theory and the Neyman-Pearson criterion are provided and the detection strategies of target signals embedded in correlated Gaussian disturbance are developed along with their performance.

After a lecture on the statistical modelling of clutter, the course will focus on the radar ambiguity function, pulse compression and Doppler processing (MTI and MTD).

The course is concluded by some basic concept on tracking and Kalman filtering.

Prerequisites

• Undergraduate background in electrical engineering or similar (mathematics, statistics, physics, signals & systems theory—rusty is OK!).
• Basic knowledge of MATLAB will help but familiarity with any programming language is enough.

What to bring

Bring your own laptop if you want to get the most out of the course. Power, wi-fi and MATLAB will be provided.

References

1. M.A. Richards, J.A. Scheer, W.A. Holm (eds.), Principles of Modern Radar: Basic Principles, Scitech, Raleigh 2010. [principal reference]
2. M.A. Richards, Fundamentals of Radar Signal Processing, McGraw-Hill, 2005.
3. B. O’Donnell, Introduction to Radar Systems, MIT OpenCourseWare

Presenter biography

Maria S. Greco graduated in Electronic Engineering in 1993 and received the Ph.D. degree in Telecommunication Engineering in 1998, from University of Pisa, Italy. From December 1997 to May 1998 she joined the Georgia Tech Research Institute, Atlanta, USA as a visiting research scholar where she carried on research activity in the field of radar detection in non-Gaussian background. In 1993 she joined the Department of Information Engineering of the University of Pisa, where she is Associate Professor since December 2011. She’s IEEE fellow since January 2011 and she was co-recipient of the 2001 IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society’s Barry Carlton Award for Best Paper and recipient of the 2008 Fred Nathanson Young Engineer of the Year award for contributions to signal processing, estimation, and detection theory. She's IEEE SPS Distinguished Lecturer for the years 2014-15. She has been general-chair, technical chair and organizing committee member of many conferences (EUSIPCO2006, WDD2007, RadCon2008, CAMSAP2009, CIP2010, CAMSAP2011, SAM2014, ICASSP2014). She was guest co-editor of the special issue of the Journal of the IEEE Signal Processing Society on Special Topics in Signal Processing on "Adaptive Waveform Design for Agile Sensing and Communication," published in June 2007 and s lead guest editor of the special issue of International Journal of Navigation and Observation on” Modelling and Processing of Radar Signals for Earth Observation published in August 2008. She’s Associate Editor of IET Proceedings – Sonar, Radar and Navigation since 2009, of the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing (2009-2013), Associate Editor in Chief of the IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine since 2011, member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Advances in Signal Processing (JASP) since 2008, member of the IEEE Signal Processing Theory and Methods (SPTM) and chair of the EDU Subcommittee (2009-2014), and member of the Signal Array Processing (SAM) Technical Committees (2010-2015). She's also member of the IEEE AESS Radar Panel and of IEEE AESS Board of Governors (2012-2014). Her general interests are in the areas of statistical signal processing, estimation and detection theory. In particular, her research interests include radar clutter models, spectral analysis, coherent and incoherent detection in non-Gaussian clutter, CFAR techniques, radar waveform diversity and bistatic/multistatic radars. She co-authored three book chapters, more than 150 journal and conference papers.

Group discounts

Group discounts can be negotiated. Please contact the organisers, Vaughan Clarkson (Qld) or Waddah Al-Ashwal (SA), if you would like to discuss.

Host or Publisher IEEE Aerospace & Electronic Systems Society (Qld & SA Chapters)