Classification of aircraft targets with low-resolution radars based on multifractal spectrum features

Abstract

The multifractal spectrum characteristics of aircraft echoes from low-resolution radars offer a fine description of dynamic characteristics which induce the echo structure; therefore, they can provide a new way for aircraft target classification and recognition with low-resolution radars. On basis of introducing the scattering mechanism of aircraft echoes from low-resolution radars, the paper analyzed the multifractal characteristics of aircraft echoes as well as the extraction method of their multifractal spectrum features by means of the multifractal analysis of measures and proposed the classification method for different types of aircraft targets from the viewpoint of pattern recognition. The classification experiment results with real recorded echo data showed the multifractal spectrum feature-based classification method can classify different types of aircraft targets effectively, so the defined characteristic parameters could be used as effective features for aircraft target classification and recognition.