Abstract:
Traditional airborne radar clutter simulation methods assume uniform terrain types and disregard the terrain occlusion phenomena. However, in practical engineering applications, the surface coverage illuminated by UAV-borne early warning radar beams spans vast areas with complex topography, where terrain occlusion is inevitable. In addition, given UAVs' lightweight construction, extended wingspans, and prolonged airborne endurance, significant challenges have emerged, including pronounced airframe vibrations and array element failures. To achieve more realistic simulations of UAV-borne radar clutter data in authentic environments, this paper proposes a refined clutter simulation method that incorporates airframe vibration and array element failure models. By introducing dynamic time-varying parameters, this method effectively integrates the airframe vibration and array element failure characteristics into a clutter simulation. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method can realistically simulate airborne radar clutter data in complex terrain environments; under conditions of airframe vibration and array element failure, the simulated clutter characteristics align with theoretical analyses, specifically manifested as mainlobe clutter broadening, mainlobe clutter amplitude reducing, and sidelobe clutter amplitude increasing.