Page 115 - Fundamentals of Radar Signal Processing

TABLE 2.3 Common Statistical Models for Radar Cross Section

The shape of the PDF of RCS directly affects detection performance, as
will be seen in Chap. 6. Figure 2.11a compares the exponential, fourth-degree

chi-square, second-degree noncentral chi-square, Weibull, and log-normal
density functions when all have an RCS variance of 0.5. The exponential
distribution then necessarily has a mean of 0.5. The fourth-degree chi-square
necessarily has a mean of 1.0, and the parameters of the remaining density
functions have been chosen to give them a mean of 1.0 as well. Figure 2.11b
repeats the same data on a semilogarithmic scale so that the behavior of the PDF
“tails” is more evident. Note that the Weibull and second-degree non-central

chi-square distributions are very similar for this choice of parameters. The chi-
square is also similar, but has a somewhat less extensive tail to the distribution.