ARRAY CALIBRATION FOR CIRCULAR-ARRAY STAP USING CLUTTER SCATTERING AND PROJECTION MATRIX FITTING

Daniel R. Fuhrmann and David W. Rieken Electronic Systems and Signals Research Laboratory Department of Electrical Engineering Washington University St. Louis, Missouri

This work was supported by a grant from the Ofce of Naval Research (DRF) and a research contract from MIT Lincoln Laboratory (DWR).

Presentation Outline

1. Background: Calibration on Clutter 2. Mathematical Premise 3. Problem Statement: Batch Subspace Estimation 4. Key Solution Concepts 5. Simulation Results

Background: Calibration on Clutter

In 1994, Robey et al., proposed a method to acquire array calibration data for a STAP radar system, exploiting the correspondence between Doppler frequency and azimuthal DOA for stationary ground clutter. We propose an extension of this concept for the UESA circular array, using both Doppler/azimuth and range/elevation correspondence. The data set for the calibration procedure will be a set of complex N -vectors zk , k = 1 . . . K , where each k is an index into a grid in elevation-azimuth space. Each zk can be considered a noisy, scaled array response vector at grid point k .

Mathematical Premise

Assertion: the array manifold should be viewed as a submanifold of complex projective space CP N . The notion of the array response vector a(, ), with its arbitrary normalization and spatial reference point, should be replaced with the 1-D subspace span{ a(, ) } which is invariant to normalization and reference.
a( ) span{ a( ) }

In estimating the array manifold, we seek P(, ), the projection operator onto span{ a(, ) }.

Problem Statement: Batch Subspace Estimation

Given:

zk = a(k , k ) s k + nk , k = 1 . . . K . a(k , k ) is a unit vector in the response space at grid point (k , k ). s k is an unknown complex scalar, related to clutter reectivity at grid point (k , k ). nk CN (0, 2 I).
"Smooth" function P: S 2 CP N describing the array manifold.

Estimate:

For computational purposes, we take P(, ) to be a rank-one projection matrix.

Key Solution Concepts

Free-space phase compensation Spherical harmonics Weighted projection matrix tting Principal components

Free-Space Phase Compensation

Any array has a nominal array response b(, ) based on element position only, which we call the free-space phase response. Our model is

(, ) (b(, )bH (, )) P(, ) = P (, ) is a multiplicative deviation. where P (, ), which we assume to be smoothlyOur tting algorithm estimates P varying on the sphere. The rst step in the algorithm is k = zk z b* (k , k )
which is informally refered to as "removing the free-space phase".

Spherical Harmonics

There exist a set of complex-valued functions Y lm (, ) which are orthonormal on the sphere and which form a complete basis for the Hilbert space of integrable functions on the sphere. They are analogous to the complex exponentials which form a basis for integrable functions on the circle, as represented in Fourier Series expansions.

f (, ) =

l =0 m =l

Y lm (, )c lm

(, ) elementwise using a low-order In our smoothing algorithm, we expand P spherical harmonic expansion.

Projection Matrix Fitting

In ordinary principal component analysis, the inuence of a data vector zk increases as the magnitude |zk | increases. This is implicit in the formation of the sample covariance matrix. We use a similar idea here, made explicit in the following weighted least-squares problem. For each k , we form the sample projection matrix

kz H z Sk = H k k k z z
then smooth along the k direction by solving the weighted least-squares problem

min(s Ac)H W(s Ac)

c

where A is a matrix whose columns are sampled spherical harmonics, and W is a diagonal weight matrix with wkk = |zk |2 .

Principal Component Analysis

Let P(, ) be the smoothed result after projection matrix tting. In general, P(, ) will not be a projection matrix (although it should be close).

(, ) be the rank-one projection matrix closest in Frobenius norm to Dene P P(, ), found through traditional principal component analysis.

Final step of the algorithm:

(, ) = P (, ) (b(, )bH (, )) . P
We call this "restoring the free-space phase".

Summary

We have proposed an array calibration algorithm for circular-array STAP which:

Uses clutter scattering data Considers the array manifold as a submanifold of projective space Employs free-space phase compensation Uses spherical harmonics to t estimated projection matrices Shows promise in initial simulation results