Target Detection in Low Grazing Angle with OFDM MIMO Radar

In low grazing angle scenario, target detection performance is seriously deteriorated due to multipath effect. This paper deals with moving target detection in low grazing angle with orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) multi-input multi-output (MIMO) radar. We show that the detection performance can be improved through utilizing the multipath effect. Realistic physical and statistical effects such as refraction of the lower atmosphere and the Earth’s curvature are incorporated into the multipath propagation model. Then, we derive a generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) detector by taking advantage of the frequency diversity of OFDM and MIMO configuration. Based on the fact that the target responses resonate at different frequencies and statistical characteristics of the test, we propose an algorithm which adaptively allocates the transmitted energy to improve the detection performance. The effectiveness of the GLRT detector as well as the adaptive design method is demonstrated via numerical examples.