Clutter Modelling

Presented By: Armaghan Mohsin

Introduction
Clutter denote unwanted echoes from land, sea, weather ,birds and insects that makes difficult the detection of wanted targets. Two types of clutter
Area or Surface clutter e.g. land and sea clutter Volume Clutter e.g. weather, birds, insects and chaff

Why Clutter different from Noise?

Although clutter is also random phenomenon but is differ from Noise in two major ways.
Clutter power spectrum is not white (i.e., it is correlated interference), while the noise power spectrum is WHITE (uncorrelated interference).
x In addition to temporal correlation, clutter is also exhibit spatial correlation: reflectivity samples from adjacent resolution cells may be correlated.

Since clutter is the result of radar echo, the power is affected by such radar and scenario parameters e.g. antenna gain, transmitted power, signal processing gain and range from radar to the terrain

Correlation
Temporal correlation
If radar antenna is fixed and clutter data are collected for fixed range bin, there is a correlation in different pulses for the specific range bin.

Spatial correlation
If radar antenna is rotating and clutter data is collected from same range bins, the correlation present in the same range bin for different antenna positions.

Surface (Area) Clutter

Area Clutter RCS is dependant on clutter characteristics and area of clutter which is illuminated by radar resolution cell. Where

W AC ! W AC
AC = o =

RCS of area clutter RCS per unit area illuminated AC = area of clutter illuminated within radar resolution cell Land and Sea are examples of Area Clutter.

Factors effecting
Grazing Angle

It is the angle from horizontal axis at which radar beam strike the surface. For smooth surfaces, o increases with increasing and, for rough surfaces, o has lesser values at higher grazing angle than at lower angles.

Vertical texture of Clutter

Rough surfaces have larger o than smooth at low grazing angle, smooth surfaces have larger o than rough surfaces at high grazing angle

Wavelength of the radars beam

o

have larger values at shorter wavelengths

Clutter Regions
Three distinct clutter regions are recognized separated by the grazing angle.
Low Grazing Angle Region.
x Extends from zero to critical angle. Critical angle is the grazing angle below which a surface is smooth.

Plateau Region.
x Grazing angle dependence of Clutter RCS is much less than in low grazing angle.

High Grazing Angle Region.

x It is characterized by the fact that, at angles near 90o, the surface acts as a specular mirror and area clutter coefficient is larger for smooth surface than for rough.

Clutter Regions

Radar resolution Cell(low grazing angle)

Radar resolution Cell(High grazing angle)

Clutter Area viewed by the radar is determined by antenna beam widths B and B. The Area is defined as

T AC ! ( )RUBRNB sin( ) ] 4

Surface Clutter Radar equation for low grazing angle

Radar equation for detection of target in surface clutter is different from radar equation is limited by receiver noise, and leads to different design guidelines. Radar equation for received echo from the target is
S! Pt GA eW t ( 4T ) 2 R 4

Radar equation for received echo from the surface Pt GAeW AC clutter C! (4T ) 2 R 4 As AC and AC are defined earlier so clutter radar equation is Pt GAeW oU B (cX ) sec ] 2 C! ( 4T ) 2 R 3

Clutter Radar Equation Contd..

When clutter echo is large compared to receiver noise, then the maximum range correspond to discernible signal to clutter ratio is defined as
Rmax Wt ! ( S C ) min W oU B (cX 2) sec]

x Range appears as the first power means greater variations of Rmax of clutter dominated radar than a noise dominated x Transmitted power does not appear explicitly in clutter-radar equation x Narrower pulse width, the greater the range, opposite of conventional radar in noise case x Integeration of pulses is generally much less effective when detection is limited by clutter

x System losses are not included explicitly in radar equation

Volume Clutter
Volume Clutter RCS is also dependant on clutter characteristics and Volume of clutter which is illuminated by radar resolution cell.

W VC ! LVC
Where = RCS of volume clutter = RCS per unit volume illuminated VC = Volume of clutter illuminated within radar resolution cell Weather, Chaff, Birds and Insects are examples of Volume Clutter
VC

Radar resolution Cell(Volume Clutter)

Clutter Volume viewed by the radar is determined by antenna beam widths B and and in third dimension by pulse width . The Volume is defined as
B

T cX VC ! ( )RUBRNB 4 2

Clutter Modelling
A clutter model is a mathematical model of clutter RCS coefficient and other parameters of clutter, as a function of grazing angle, frequency, polarization, and nature of the surface and environment. A good clutter model gives two advantages, in analysis it use to predict the performance of radar processors, secondly in design stage by using adaptation it allows optimum, or at least sub-optimum, receivers to be synthesized. In computer simulations they are also used as algorithms to generate clutter patterns. (David K. Barton, 1997)

Clutter Modeling Cont.

A clutter model describes the following parameters of the clutter. The empirical formulas based on experimental measurements and observations give mean RCS coefficient ( o), for given land or sea structure, grazing angle, frequency, and polarization. Similarly for Volume Clutter. Probability density function to describe amplitude behavior of Clutter RCS (e.g. Rayleigh, Weibull distribution). Velocity (or Doppler) spectrum behavior. Coherency in time domain (Temporal Correlation). Coherency in spatial domain (Spatial Correlation).

Wheather Clutter Modelling

Radar is much less effected by weather than are optical and infrared sensors, typically at microwaves and mm wavelength frequencies Mostly radar performance is effected by rain Rain RCS is model by rayleigh distribution .i.e many small scatteres and none of them is dominant the others. Rayleigh need one parameter to described clutter and is calculated by rain fall rate
L ! Wi ! 7 f r
i 4 1 .6

v 10

 12

m2

m3

Continue..
Generate rayleigh distributed data for a single range bin centered at mean clutter cross section. Compute corresponding received power using Radar Range Equation for clutter.
Pt GP2cXL C! 1024(ln 2) R 2

Compute corresponding voltage levels. Apply this profile to signal to generate echo.

Chaff
Chaff is also describe by the rayleigh pdf and its mean clutter RCS coefficient is given as
W ChTot ! 0.15P2 N Dip

Where

WChTot ! x
x x

total RCS of all resonantdipoles within radar resolution volume (square meters) N Dip ! number of dipoles in the resolution volume P ! radar operating wavelength

Rayleigh PDF
The Rayleigh probability density function is

For Mean Variance

Surface Clutter Model

If there are many small land or sea scatterers within resolution cell and none of them is dominant then rayleigh distribution describe land or sea clutter Mostly there are large values from the scatterers need distributions having long tails to caters these spikes or larger values Weibull and log-normal have long tails to accommodate these spikes. Two parameters need to specify these distributions

Clutter Models parameters continue..

For log normal distribution the two parameters mean and variance are required
Mean is computed by empirical formulas for Land and Sea clutter Variance is selected according to nature of clutter and grazing angle

For log normal distribution the two parameters mean and skewness are required
Mean is computed as given above skewness is selected from the given tables

Surface Clutter Models parameters

Sea Clutter Model
The mean value for sea clutter RCS is defined as
o W o ! 10log{ [6.4  0.6(SS 1)  logP  log(sin )  0.1W C ] 10 ]

 tan2 (T / 2 ] )  tan2 Fo exp[ ]} 2 tan Fo

o

(dB)

W C ) = Where 0 = clutter coefficient at critical angle, taken zero C above that angle K = a constant from 1 to 4, Morchin suggests 1.9 SS = it defines sea states = Radar operating wavelength o = clutter slope irregularity factor(radians), for sea clutter

= ! 10K log( C

F o } 2.44( SS 1)1.08 (T 180)

Surface Clutter Models parameters

Land Clutter Model
The mean value for sea clutter RCS is defined as
o W o ! 10 log{10 [0.1 A  log P  log(sin ] )  0.1W C ]

 tan 2 ( B  ] )  tan F o exp[ ]  10 (u / 10 )} tan 2 F o

2

( dB )

= W oC ! 10log( C ) =

hE ! 9.3Fo2.2

 10 log( 4 . 7 /

f)

Where
x he =RMS surface height irregularities x A, B and o are constants, these values are given in tables for different terrains. x u = high angle reflectivity of the clutter surface, unity for sea

Log-Normal PDF
The log-normal distribution has the probability density function

For x > 0 Mean Variance

Weibull PDF
The probability density function of a Weibull random variable x is.
 xb bx b 1 P( x) ! a exp a
b Wm a! ln 2

Wm !

W + (1  1 b ) b (ln 2)

x= Clutter backscatter normalized. b = Shape parameter(skewness). = Mean Clutter Cross-Section

Clutter Doppler Spectrum

Sea Clutter Spectrum
Doppler spectrum is Gaussian in shape, whose clutter motion spread is defined by velocity standard deviation and zero mean velocity
W v ! 0.101W s x Where
is standard deviation of clutter motion in velocity units x Ws is wind velocity in same units x SS is sea states x B is 0.65 if v and Ws in knots,0.36 if in m/sec x
v

W v ! 0.101 v 10 ( B  0.14 SS )

Clutter Doppler Spectrum

Land Clutter Doppler Spectrum
Some Land clutter spectra are Gaussian in shape, with zero mean Doppler and various standard deviation for different terrains
W v ! aW s x Where
is standard deviation of clutter motion in velocity units x Ws is wind velocity in same units x a = 0.007(vegetated terrain), 0.0045(woodlands) x b = 1.28(vegetated terrain), 1.4 (woodlands) x
v
b

Clutter spectrum Continue.

Land Clutter Doppler Spectrum
Some clutter power spectrum is not fit the Gaussian an empirical formula is defined by Fishbein is
S( f ) ! 1 [1 ( f fc )3 ]

f c ! 1.33 exp(0.1356Ws )

x Where
x x x x P(f) power spectrum of clutter as function of frequency f, frequency of interest. fc, cutoff frequency. Ws is wind speed in knots

Clutter spectrum Continue.

Rain/Chaff Clutter Doppler Spectrum
Rain and chaff doppler spectra are gaussian in shape where doppler spread is define by standard deviation and is centered at some mean doppler velocity, standard deviation for rain and chaff is defined as 2 2 2 2 2 Wv !WshearWturb WbeamWfall
W shear ! 0.42kRUBel W beam ! 0.42VoUBaz SinF W shear ! sin]

x Where
x k = 4, R= range from clutter, x Vo =wind velocity at beam center x turb = 1 m/sec (rain), 0.7 m/sec (chaff)

Clutter Doppler Spectra

Clutter Modeling