Methods for Formation of the Information Signatures of the Radar Range Profiles of the Aerial Targets

Abstract

Development of the theory and practice of the automatic radar object recognition is based on the latest computer technologies, system analysis and processing. One of the modern trends in the field of the aerial targets recognition is related to the analysis of the radar range profiles (RP). The authors discuss the idea of presentation of the radar aerial targets as a set of scatter points of the radio waves, which depends on its structural features, as it is shown in presentation of RP as a superposition of the elementary scatters. The procedure of the radar object recognition includes two sequential tasks. The first task is to build the classification signatures of the objects using the radar data, which allows us to distinguish the objects, one from another. The second task is identification of the observed objects by gathering of the obtained signatures. The reliability of the recognition depends mainly on the choice of the classification signatures. The article shows that a solution for recognition of the aerial targets can be based on the analysis of the morphological, geometrical and wavelet characteristics of the range profiles. The methods for formation of the corresponding information features are discussed in this article. Construction of the morphological signatures is based on the analysis of the impulse components in the RP structure: the composition and the results, ranking by the amplitude. The geometrical information signatures of RP include such indicators as its depth, center of gravity and moments of the zero, first and higher orders. A possibility of application of a continuous wavelet transformation is presented in the analysis of the range profile features. The wavelet analysis allows us to detect the local features of the signals. It is a powerful alternative to Fourier analysis, and it ensures a more flexible technique for processing of the signals. The effectiveness of the wavelet analysis depends substantially on the selection of the basic wavelet. The article raises the question of the best choice of the basic wavelet. The solution is proposed upon the analysis of the Gram matrix characteristics, which are constructed from the wavelet coefficients of the aerial target RP. In the implemented studies, all the necessary empirical data of the RRP aircraft were obtained by using Backscattering Simulation, simulation programs of the RP aerial targets, developed by Y. D. Shirman and his staff.