Transmit design for airborne MIMO radar based on prior information

• Knowledge-based (KB) transmit design for airborne MIMO radar in the non-homogeneous clutter zone is introduced.
• Clutter information should be acquired end updated in real time for airborne MIMO radar.
• Transmit array should be divided into two subarrays for clutter perception and target detection respectively.
• Better performance for both clutter perception and target detection can be achieved.

Knowledge-based (KB) transmit design problem is addressed for airborne Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar target detection in the non-homogeneous clutter zone. In airborne system, due to the fact that radar platform is moving, clutter has obvious time-varying property. It is vital to acquire and update clutter information in real time for airborne MIMO radar. However, there is a contradiction between transmit beampattern optimization for clutter perception and target detection. Thus, transmit optimization for both clutter perception and target detection could hardly be done simultaneously. To remedy these problems, a transmit design method for airborne MIMO radar is proposed based on the merit of MIMO radar in waveform diversity, in which the transmit array is divided into two subarrays, i.e. clutter perception subarray and target detection subarray. Then, the transmit design problem is decomposed into two subproblems, subarray partition and transmit waveform design. Based on convex optimization, subarray partition algorithm (SPA) and detection subarray beampattern design (DSBD) algorithm are presented. Numerical results show the efficiency of the proposed method.