Multistage cancellation of terrain scattered jamming and conventional clutter

This paper addresses the problem of adaptively canceling both conventional clutter and terrain-scattered jamming (TSJ) in airborne radar systems. Existing algorithms for this type of interference adapt first in space/fast-time to cancel the TSJ, then in space/slow-time to cancel the conventional clutter. Unfortunately, the rapid weight updating required to cancel the nonstationary TSJ will modulate the clutter and targets, making the cancellation of conventional clutter extremely difficult and reducing the accuracy of the reported target locations. This paper proposes a multi-stage beamformer that prevents modulated clutter from degrading cancellation performance. The processor is formulated and its properties are described. The application of this beamformer to site-specific simulated data sets is used to illustrate its performance.