Optimal antenna pattern design for platform motion compensation

Auxiliary array patterns in conjunction with the primary receive pattern are widely used for platform motion compensation in airborne and heliborne radar systems. An improved approach for radar auxiliary antenna design is presented. Two corresponding correction patterns of an arbitrary receive pattern are derived under a new criterion, in which the minimization of the total clutter residue averaged over all angles needs the least degree of freedom for the array, and therefore, with the possibly surplus degrees of freedom, the sidelobe level of the correction pattern can be further optimized. The results of simulation illustrate that the average clutter cancellation ratio approximates the optimal value and the additional clutter power from the correction patterns is minimized.