Angular Glint Error Simulation Using Attributed Scattering Center Models

Abstract

Angular glints are induced essentially by the superposition of scattering responses from multiple scattering centers and usually fluctuate quickly and widely with the aspect angles for complex targets change. This paper presents angular glint simulation of complex conducting targets using attributed scattering centers. The formulae for linear glint errors (LGEs) are derived based on the parametric models of attributed scattering centers and can be applied for real-time LGE simulation. Our analyses and numerical experiments show that the LGE simulation requires more precise scattering center modeling than the radar imaging simulation does. To ensure the accuracy of the LGE simulation, a forward approach that uses induced currents on conducting targets is used to precisely extract the scattering centers. The numerical results show that the LGE simulation based on the developed scattering center model has high accuracy. More importantly, the scattering center model developed for sparse aspect angles can be used to simulate LGEs for dense aspect angles, as required for complex targets, which leads to high efficiency in simulating LGEs.