Page 114 - Fundamentals of Radar Signal Processing

FIGURE 2.10 Histogram of RCS data of Fig. 2.9 and exponential PDF with the
same mean.

Instead of an ensemble of equal-strength scatterers, some radar targets are
better modeled as consisting of one or a few dominant scatterers contributing
most of the RCS, modified by the contributions of a number of smaller
scatterers. Many PDFs have been advocated and used to model these targets.

Table 2.3 summarizes several of the more common models for the variability of
RCS with aspect angle and radar frequency for targets with and without
4
dominant scatterers. The mean value of RCS is given for each case in which
the PDF is not written explicitly in terms of . The variance var(σ) is also given
for each case. Other common PDFs not included in Table 2.3 are the non-central
chi-square and K distributions. Additional information on these PDFs and their

relationships, including more conventional forms and in some cases the
characteristic functions, is given in App. A. Additional discussion of some of
these PDFs in the context of clutter modeling is also given in Sec. 2.3.4.