A
system and method are disclosed for enhancing the suppression of
clutter and target detection in a
radar system located on a moving platform. For example, a
radar system including an MTI subsystem is located on a moving platform (e.g., ship-borne, airborne or space-based
radar system) with a DPCA
processing unit located nearer to the front end of the radar
receiver, and a STAP
processing unit located nearer to the back end. The DPCA
processing unit provides gross cancellation and suppression of the received
clutter signals, and the STAP processing unit provides
fine tuning for the
clutter suppression process. In other words, the front end DPCA processing unit removes most of the rapidly varying clutter, which gives the back end STAP processing unit a more benign clutter environment to process. As such, using a DPCA processing unit on a space-based radar platform improves system performance, because the space-based platform is relatively stable and not subject to air turbulence or
wave motion. Also, using a DPCA processing unit provides independence from clutter statistics, which is important because relatively little empirical clutter data is available from space-based radar platforms. Using a STAP processing unit for clutter suppression on the space-based radar platform provides
fine tuning of the suppression process.