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MARK Resources has extensive and rather unique experience in radar signal processing, with applications to detection, discrimination, target identification, and target motion and trajectory analysis. Our innovative work in this area began in the early 1970s when we investigated how radars could discriminate between targets and decoys. This effort led to the development of a new signal processing technology based on short-term moving-window Fourier transform analysis, which we named Target Motion Resolution (TMR) processing; it is also known as Phase Derived Range (PDR) and Doppler Time Intensity (DTI) processing. It has been applied with much success to the analysis of the target motion and signature when the targets are simple, such as missiles and projectiles. We have delivered operational TMR software to several test ranges, where it is used in production environments to extract accurate vehicle trajectories and flight dynamics measurements from raw radar signals. We have also developed innovative techniques for the analysis of more complicated targets. Our examination of high-resolution SAR imagery showed that the concept of matched filtering is not valid for man-made targets when resolution is high; the phase of the processor output contains information that is essential for modern radar applications, and cannot be discarded. This realization led to the development of our Complex-Image Analysis technology, which is described in the book Radar Resolution and Complex-Image Analysis . The application of this technology to a variety of targets is described in the new book Theory and Practice of Radar Target Identification . Significant advances in detection and identification performance have been demonstrated in small-scale automated tests of the Complex-Image Analysis technology. MARK Resources has also performed pioneering work in the simulation of radar systems and signals, as described in the book Radar Signal Simulation. We have developed several computer based systems for simulating signals for real-time input into radar receivers under test, and we have developed over 30 large-scale programs for simulating all types of target and clutter environments. We have built and delivered several complete "turnkey" simulation sytems to organizations involved in the testing of airborne radars. These systems inject signals into a selected radar component at real-time data rates and respond dynamically to the state of the radar and its simulated environment. We have invented a number of fast signal generation techniques to realistically emulate the returns from airborne targets, ground clutter, and chaff at the digitized video level or at analog IF or RF interfaces. MARK Resources also provides comprehensive system engineering support services to organizations involved in the design development and testing of radar systems. In the role of subcontractor or independent evaluator on a radar program, we have been responsible for the performance specifications of major system components such as signal processors, receivers, and antennas. We develop effective algorithms for waveform generation and processing, radar clutter suppression, target detection and resolution, angle measurement, track-while-scan, ECCM, and many other functions. Several staff members have been selected to serve as the radar experts on government panels tasked with the evaluation of integrated weapons systems.  Dr. Richard L. Mitchell is President of MARK Resources . Dr. Mitchell has devoted most of his professional career to research and development in radar related subjects, including system design, analysis, and simulation, propagation phenomena, and signal processing. Dr. Mitchell is the author of the textbook, Radar Signal Simulation (Artech House, 1976), and he has developed over 30 large-scale simulation programs for all types of radars and threat environments, including the Technical Radar Analysis and Modeling System (TRAMS) for the Air Force. This computer program is designed to analyze ground based radars under a variety of threat and environment conditions. He also developed several real-time computer-based systems for simulating environment signals at the input to radar receivers under test. The signals included extended targets, ground clutter, and chaff. In radar signal processing, Dr. Mitchell has supported the development of the Target Motion Resolution technology since the early 1970s and the Complex Image Analysis technology since the early 1980s. He has developed efficient algorithms for resolving and tracking individual scatterers, and for the real-time processing of radar data, including pulse compression and Doppler filtering, two-dimensional interpolation, decimation, motion compensation, and imaging. He has participated in several programs involving threat radars, including the design of the signal processor (through B5 software specifications) for a threat radar simulator, the evaluation of the ALQ-161 system in the B-1B aircraft, and the evaluation of the effectiveness of penetration aids against Soviet ballistic missile defense radars. Dr. Mitchell has also made numerous contributions in other areas of radar technology, including waveform design for clutter suppression, radar system design, signal processor design, detection theory, propagation, antennas, and the analysis of radar systems in general. Dr. August Rihaczek is Vice President of MARK Resources. For the past 40 years Dr. Rihaczek has devoted almost all of his time to research in radar related subjects. In the 1960s he was a major contributor to the development of conventional radar resolution theory, which has been important for recognizing the limitations of that theory. Much of this work is contained in his textbook, Principles of High-Resolution Radar . In the early 1970s, he developed a class of signal processing methods now widely adopted and known as Target Motion Resolution (TMR) processing, Doppler Time Intensity (DTI) processing, and Phase Derived Range (PDR) processing. It is an application of Doppler processing to the measurement of the flight dynamics of spinning, precessing, and nutating targets such as missiles, reentry vehicles, and artillery projectiles. In the early 1980s, he demonstrated that the conventional theory of radar resolution, which is based on point targets, is no longer applicable to the high resolution of man-made targets, where a resolution cell is much smaller than the target. He was also able to explain why the identification of targets in SAR imagery has been so unreliable. Since then he has developed the theory and signal processing which is needed for the high resolution of man-made targets. He first had to understand the backscattering behavior of man-made targets, which is rather different from what is conventionally modeled. Then it was necessary to extend resolution theory to the peculiar backscattering of man-made targets. Lastly, he developed the signal processing methods needed to utilize the new theory. This work has led to algorithms that allow reliable detection of ground vehicles, in the clear or concealed, as well as the identification of aircraft and other man-made targets. The basic theory and its application are described in his textbooks, Radar Resolution and Complex-Image Analysis and Theory and Practice of Radar Target Identification, respectively. Dr. Rihaczek has also made numerous contributions in other areas of radar technology. He developed systematic procedures for the design of modern radar, starting from specifications of the threat environment and required performance. These procedures have been used to design several different radars, for both U.S. and international customers. They are especially applicable to the detection of low-cross section targets in a hostile environment. He also was a pioneer in the design of waveforms for clutter suppression. One of his designs for the processing of Barker coded pulses has been widely used in the radar industry. |
mri@markres.com
Last Modified: Wed Dec 06 18:00:46 2000
Copyright 2000 MARK Resources Inc.
