EAS487: Radar Remote Sensing Spring 2014

HOMEWORK 6: Detection
Reference: Lectures 31-34 Due: 2014 April 11
Problem 1. In class, we discussed (in the context
of target detection, false alarms, and missed detec-
tions) the fact that, if the probability density func-
tions (PDFs) for raw receiver voltages V = x + iy
are Gaussian, the PDF for the magnitude of those
voltages |V | is something dierent.
Consider the output of a quadrature receiver re-
ceiving noise only. Let the PDFs of the in-phase and
quadrature components of the output voltages have
Gaussian distributions so that
P(x)dx =
1

2
e

x
2
2
2
dx
P(y)dy =
1

2
e

y
2
2
2
dy
Since the two components are statistically indepen-
dent, P(x, y) = P(x)P(y), and so the probability
of producing a voltage in a given dx, dy interval is
P(x, y)dxdy = P(x)P(y)dxdy.
Now, we can change variables from x and y to |V |
and where |V |
2
= x
2
+y
2
and = atan(y/x). Con-
verting everything to polar coordinates and recalling
that dxdy = |V |d|V |d, we can rewrite the PDF for
the receiver output as
P(|V |, )d|V |d =
1
2
2
e

|V |
2
2
2
|V |d|V |d
Integrating over all phase angles then, we can write
the PDF for V as
P(|V |) =
|V |

2
e

|V |
2
2
2
which is a Rayleigh distribution.
Now the question: suppose that, in addition to
noise, a deterministic signal is also present that
makes a constant added contribution to the output
voltage of the form V

= a + ib, with V
2

= a
2
+ b
2
and

= atan(b/a). Find the resulting PDF P(|V |).

Sketch it for the cases where the deterministic signal
is much weaker than and much stronger than the
noise.
Hint:

2
0
exp(c cos(

)) = 2I

(c) where I

is
the modied Bessel function of the rst kind of order
zero, I

(0) = 1, and I

(x) exp(x)/

2x for large
x. The result you nd is called a Rician distribution.
Problem 2. A 300 MHz radar transmits 20 s
pulses, giving a range resolution of 3 km, towards a
target 75 km away. The IPP is 2 ms, and we as-
sume that range aliasing is not occurring. The radar
cross section of the target is such that the S/N ra-
tio for each individual pulse is -20 dB. The target is
approaching the radar at 40 m/s, and the Doppler
spread caused by the target tumbling is about 2 Hz.
Design a data processing scheme, consisting of coher-
ent FFT processing (discrete Fourier transform of 2
n
samples, giving 2
n
frequency bins) followed by inco-
herent averaging of the resulting power spectra, that
will give the best output S/N ratio. In other words,
what is the largest useful value of n, and how many
spectra can you average incoherently? What is the
resulting output S/N ratio, roughly? The idea is to
make the FFT such that all the signal is more or less
in one frequency bin, giving the best S/N ratio in
that bin, and then to incoherently average as many
of these spectra as possible. How many can you av-
erage, given that you want the target to remain in
one range gate during the averaging?
Problem 3. Range aliasing. A radar searching
for aircraft transmits a long series of pulses with
an IPP of 500 s. An echo is observed at delay of
300 s. The radar operator suspects that the target
may actually be range aliased, however, and checks
this by changing the IPP to 400 s. The echo de-
lay changes to 200 s. What is the smallest possible
target range?
Problem 4. Frequency aliasing. Suppose that,
in the above example, the observed Doppler shift of
the target also changed from +400 Hz for the orig-
inal IPP to +900 Hz for the second IPP. What is
the smallest possible (in absolute value) true Doppler
shift consistent with these observations?
CORNELL UNIVERSITY c DAVE HYSELL (14/03/22)
HW 61