An efficient error estimation method for antenna distortions in space based radar

Abstract

The phased array antenna plays an important role in determining the performance achievable in a space based radar system. However, the array position errors caused by the antenna distortions in the complex cosmic vacuum environment will distort the antenna pattern, which significantly degrades the performance of the radar systems. Most of the conventional estimation methods are proposed based on the random position errors without the consideration of the distortion character for spaceborne arrays, resulting in a large estimation error. In this paper, to address this issue, an efficient array error estimation method is proposed to compensate the antenna distortion errors. In the proposed method, the initial sensor positions can be obtained based on the measured results from the units distributed over the array surface. Then the distortion model parameters can be estimated by solving an optimization problem. Based on this, the sensor positions can be corrected with high accuracy at the lth iteration. In this way, the proposed method can improve the accuracy and the robustness of the estimation simultaneously. Several simulated results are presented to validate the proposed method for the position error estimation in a space based radar system.