1.
INTRODUCTION
Spectral Characteristics of
Radar Echoes From Aircraft-
Dispensed Chaff
WILMOT J. ESTES, Student Member, IEEE
ROBERT H. FLAKE, Member, IEEE
University of Texas at Austin
CLAUD C. PINSON
Pinson Associates
Experimental amplitude and phase measurements of radar
echoes from chaff both in the wake of the dispensing aircraft (new
chaff) and after the aircraft has left the area (mature chaff) are
described. UHF and X-band coherent radars are used to obtain
experimental data for both continuously-dispensed chaff and
discrete chaff units. The mean radial velocity v0 and the velocity
standard deviation cr, of the chaff cloud are estimated from
complex-envelope spectral density estimates. For mature chaff, or
ranges from 0.3 to 1.2 ms -. For new chaff, both cr, and v0 depend
on the position in the wake. At 150 m behind the aircraft, rv varies
from 2.0 to 2.7 ms' and at 450 m, r, varies from 0.8 to 1.5 ms-'.
No apparent correlation between the magnitude of cv and either
radar frequency or chaff type is found. An expression is derived
which shows the effect of conical scanning on the complex envelope
spectral density.
Manuscript received August 5, 1983; revised March 19, 1984.
This work was supported in part by the United States Army, Office of
Missile Electronic Warfare, under contract DAAD07-82-C-0230.
Authors' addresses: W.J. Estes and R.H. Flake, Department of
Electrical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
78712; C.C. Pinson, Pinson Associates, Inc., P.O. Box 9648, Austin,
TX 78766.
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Recent experiences have shown that chaff can still be
effective as a radar countermeasure for the protection of
aircraft in combat (Fritz [1]). For this reason, there is at
the present time some interest in adaptive radar
processors, that exploit current signal processing
technology, for detecting the tracking targets in the
presence of chaff and other types of clutter (Sawyers [2],
Haykin [3]). Clearly, an understanding of the
characteristics of chaff under operational conditions is
necessary for the successful development and testing of a
radar signal processor intended to operate in a chaff
environment. The purpose of this paper is to give an
account of the results of a series of experiments which
include the recording and analysis of echo signals from
chaff as it was dispensed from an aircraft. (Chaff in this
state is referred to as "new" chaff.) Echo signals from
chaff clouds observed several minutes after the dispensing
aircraft has left the area (we call this "mature" chaff) are
also analyzed.
A particular subject of interest is the use of chaff to
degrade the performance of a tracking radar as it tracks
an incoming aircraft. Conceptually, nearly all tracking
radars maintain the beam on target by 1) illuminating a
volume of space containing the target, and then
2) positioning the beam so that a range gate contains the
centroid or leading edge of the power returned from the
volume. There are of course many different methods for
implementing this process, but the technique of balancing
the power received in several pairs of receivers to track
the centroid or leading edge, is used in some form in
most tracking radars. The presence in the tracking volume
of chaff dispensed by the aircraft disturbs the centroid,
thus degrading tracking accuracy and possibly causing the
radar to lose track of the aircraft. A state of the art
tracking radar counters the use of chaff with a Doppler
filter; since the chaff dipoles move at about the same
velocity as the air currents, the echoes from the dipoles
may be filtered out with a band-reject filter that attenuates
those components of the received signal with Doppler
shifts in an interval corresponding to, for example, -50
knots to + 50 knots. However, the aircraft can defeat this
type of system by dispensing chaff and, at the same time,
turning sharply so that its radial speed is nearly zero. The
Doppler filter must be disabled when this maneuver is
detected, for otherwise the aircraft signal would be
filtered out.
If it is true that the Doppler shifts of the dipoles
occupy a fairly narrow band of frequencies in the
situation described above, then conceivably an adaptive
signal processor could be designed that 1) estimates the
location of the band of frequencies occupied by the chaff,
and 2) uses a narrow band-reject filter positioned at this
location to filter out the chaff signal. By replacing a wide
band-reject filter with a narrow filter, the performance of
the radar would be enhanced since the aircraft would lie
in the rejection band for a shorter time period. Optimum
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 processors for clutter rejection have been discussed in the
literature [4]; the design of practical signal processors to
operate in real time is a subject of current research. Our
research is concerned in part with characterizing the echo
signal from chaff as it is dispensed; for example, the
width of the frequency band occupied by the chaff is of
importance.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows.
Previous experimental results are discussed in Section II;
for the most part, these results involved estimating the
spectral width for mature chaff clouds based on recorded
measurements of the power signal. Our results add to
these previous results in two ways: 1) our spectral
estimates are based on complex-envelope measurements
(i.e., amplitude and phase), not just on power
measurements, and 2) we have analyzed measurements
for both new chaff and mature chaff. Sections III, IV,
and V discuss the experimental method and data
processing techniques employed in this study. The
experimental results for mature chaff and new chaff are
summarized in Sections VI and VII, respectively.
Conclusions and suggestions for further work are given in
Section VIII.
11. PREVIOUS EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Consider a coherent radar that transmits N rectangular
pulses, with a pulse repetition period of At seconds, in a
fixed direction toward a chaff cloud. The N returns from
the range cell containing the chaff may be represented by
a sequence of complex-envelope samples {z(to), z(tl),
z(tN_ 1)} where tn = to + nAt, n = 0, 1, ..., N- 1, and
R = ctO/2 is the distance to the range cell; z(tn) =
anexp(jOn) where an is the amplitude and O, is the phase
of the nth return. It is well known that z(t) may be
modeled as a zero-mean complex Gaussian random
process which is stationary over an observation period of
a few seconds [4, 5]. Since z(t) is a Gaussian process, it
is characterized by its autocorrelation function Rz(T) =
E[z(t + T)z*(t)i or, equivalently, its spectral density
function Sz(f) which is the Fourier transform of RZ(r).
Let w(f) = SA(f)IA where A = f Sz(f) df; that is,
' our experimental data, a UHF radar and an X-band radar.
w(f) is Sz(f) normalized to unity area, and w(f) is
approximately equal to the probability density function of
the Doppler shifts of the dipoles. Thus w(f) df is the
fraction of chaff dipoles with Doppler shifts in the
frequency increment df.
Using the relationship f = -2vlX where f is Doppler
shift, v is radial velocity, and X is the wavelength, it is
convenient to define a velocity density function q(v) by
q(v) = 2 w(-f)/X. (1)
In radar literature, q(v) is often assumed to be Gaussian
shaped with mean v0 and standard deviation ov; in this
case, S,(f) is of the form
Sz(f) = Soexp{-[(f-f0)X/vr8]2}
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where fo = - 2voIX. The usual practice in the past has
been to describe the spectral characteristics of chaff in
terms of vo and ov the mean and standard deviation of
q(v). Nathanson [61 has compiled several estimates of av,
for chaff under various conditions, that have been
obtained by other investigators. Since measurements of
the complex envelope z(t) = a(t)exp[jO(t)] were not
available in these studies, the estimates are based entirely
on measurements of the power signal p(t) = a2(t). The
procedure used required the assumption that Sz(f) is
Gaussian shaped as in (2) above; then the spectral density
of p(t) - p(t) where p(t) is the time average of p(t), is
of the form
Sp(f) = Poexp[-(fX/4or)2] (3)
which is also Gaussian shaped. Thus previous researchers
were able to estimate ov by fitting a Gaussian-shaped
curve to an estimate of Sp(f). Reported values for or,
obtained this way for mature chaff clouds vary from 0.35
to 2.0 ms- 1. We are unaware of any previous published
estimates of orv for chaff in the wake of a dispensing
aircraft.
It may be shown that Sp(f) = Sz(f)*Sz(-f), where
* denotes convolution. It is of interest to note that,
loosely speaking, the convolution of two functions tends
to be Gaussian shaped even though the original functions
are not Gaussian shaped. Therefore Sp(f) tends to be
Gaussian shaped even when S,(f) is not; hence
characterizing the shape of S,(f) based on estimates of
Sp(f) is somewhat inadequate. For this reason, the use of
complex-envelope measurements in our study has enabled
us to better describe the shape of Sz(f) under a variety of
conditions. Complex-envelope measurements of radar
echoes from chaff have also been used in meteorological
studies (see [7], for example).
IlI. EXPERIMENTAL MEASUREMENTS
A. Radars
Two different pencil-beam radars were used to obtain
The UHF radar, located at Wallops Island, VA, operates
at 420 MHz, has a fixed pulse repetition frequency (PRF)
of 640 Hz, a pulsewidth of 1 ,us, a one-way beamwidth
of 1.20 and uses HH polarization. The X-band radar,
located at the Chesapeake Bay Division of the Naval
Research Laboratory, operates at 9.390 GHz, has a
pulsewidth of 1 ,us, a one-way beamwidth of 1.50, and
uses VV polarization. For the data we have analyzed, the
PRF of this radar was fixed at 33.3 kHz. However, since
the data-collection equipment could not operate at this
high sampling rate, provision was made to sample every
nth pulse where, typically, n is between 4 and 12.
Since both radars have a pulsewidth tpW = 1 [is, the
depth of a range resolution cell in each case is Ar = 150
(2) m. That is, the received signal at any given time is the
9
 superposition of the echoes from dipoles in a range
interval 150 m in length.
The two radars accomplished angle tracking
differently during these experiments. The UHF radar was
slaved to a separate S-band tracking radar. The X-band
radar performed angle tracking with a conical-scan
tracking system. The effect of conical scanning on the
received signal will be discussed in a later section.
B. Data Collection Equipment
The data collection system attached to the radars for
these experiments includes processors that extract and
digitize the amplitude and phase of the received signal
and a minicomputer that supervises the sampling process
and records data on magnetic tape. This system consists
of RCS processor model 403A and phase processor model
503A manufactured by Pinson Associates, Inc., of
Austin, Texas. For each pulse, the system can record the
amplitude and phase for several range gates; periodically,
the system also records several quantities such as the
range to a selected gate, the elevation, and the azimuth.
The radar provides the data collection system with a
coherent reference signal cos 2'tit and the intermediate
frequency echo signal
xi(t) = a(t) cos(2irfit + 0(t))
A logarithmic IF
wherefi is the intermediate frequency.
amplifier extracts from xi(t) a voltage proportional to the
logarithm of the power p(t) = a2(t); samples of log p(t)
are digitized and recorded using 8 bits. The ratio of the
maximum to minimum power values that can be recorded
is Pmax/Pmin = 108; therefore, the power measurements
have an 80 dB dynamic range. The measured accuracy is
+ 0.5 dB over the 80 dB range. For all data analyzed in
this study, Pmax was set large enough so that saturation
did not occur.
The operation of the phase detector, which is a
custom-made device manufactured by Miteq, Inc., may
be described as follows. Let xi = A, cos(wt + 0) denote
the echo signal whose phase 0 is to be determined (w =
2 fffi). The inputs to the phase detector include xi and the
reference signal xr = A2 cos wt. The quantities yi = A1
sin(wt + 0) and Yr = A2 sin wt are obtained with 900
phase shifters. Voltages proportional to cos 0 and sin 0
are developed by implementing the equations
A1A2 cOs 0 = XiXr + YiYr
A1A2 sin 0 = YiXr - XiYr
using mixers and summers. The final outputs are voltages
x(t) = K cos 0(t) and y(t) = K sin 0(t) where the
nominal value for K is 0.32 V. From the in-phase and
quadrature signals x(t) and y(t), the instantaneous phase
0(t) =arctan[y(t)/x(t)]
may be determined. The signals x(t) and y(t) are digitized
and sent to the minicomputer which carries out the four-
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quadrant arctan calculation and records 0(t) on magnetic
tape using 8 bits. Based on calibration measurements, the
accuracy of the recorded phase values is + 5°.
The effect of nonlinearities and quantization errors on
spectral density estimates is discussed in Section IV.
C. Chaff Measurements
For a few seconds after chaff is dispensed by an
aircraft, the chaff dipoles are agitated by the turbulence
associated with the wake of the aircraft. We use the term
"new" chaff when referring to chaff in this state. After
the aircraft has left the area, only naturally occurring
winds affect the chaff dipoles; in this situation we use the
term "mature" chaff. The methods used to collect
mature-chaff data and new-chaff data differed somewhat.
To obtain mature-chaff data, the range gate selected for
recording was positioned at the range of the chaff cloud
and the echo signal received in the gate was recorded for
several seconds.
To obtain new-chaff data, a leading range gate was
positioned on the dispensing aircraft as it headed toward
the radar, leaving a chaff cloud in its wake. Two or three
trailing gates positioned behind the leading gate received
echoes from the new chaff; the new-chaff data consists of
the echoes in these gates. For the UHF radar, three
trailing gates, positioned 150 m, 300 m, and 450 m
behind the aircraft, were used. For the X-band radar,
there were two trailing gates at 210 m and 420 m behind
the aircraft. Each range gate covers an interval 150 m
wide; therefore, for example, dipoles located between 225
m and 375 m behind the aircraft contribute to the gate
300 m behind the aircraft. In all cases, the aspect angle
was between 80 and 200 (the aspect angle is 00 when the
aircraft heads directly toward the radar).
The random motion of the dipoles tends to cause a
chaff cloud to grow with time. However, little
quantitative information is available on chaff cloud size
as a function of time and no attempt was made to
measure chaff cloud dimensions during these
experiments. Photographs obtained in a previous
experiment suggest that at about 200 m behind the
aircraft, the aluminum-coated glass fiber dipoles in a
discrete chaff unit occupied a cylinder about 6 m long
and 2 m in diameter. Based on this information, we are
confident that for new-chaff data, the chaff cloud is
contained entirely within the radar beam. For mature-
chaff data the chaff cloud almost certainly extends
beyond the beam since measurements were made at least
three minutes after dispensing. In this case the radar tends
to be positioned at the point in the cloud with the greatest
average radar cross section; presumably this is near the
center of the cloud. See [6] for references to literature
related to the dispersion of chaff clouds.
IV. SPECTRAL DENSITY ESTIMATES
From the recorded log power and phase samples for a
particular gate over a selected time interval, we obtain,
 after appropriate numerical conversions, a sequence zo, F(r) = 1 - IrTI/Ar, 0 ' rI| ' Ar
zi *ZN- l of N complex-envelope samples where Zk -
...,

akexp(jOk) = Xk + jYk. For new chaff, the range to the

= 0, rI > A r. (5)
chaff cloud decreases during the observation period, Let R(Qr) and R,(T) denote, respectively, the
causing the average signal amplitude to increase. autocorrelation functions with and without gate
Variations in amplitude due solely to the changing range movement. Using the fact that echoes from different sets
are removed by multiplying ak by (rklrO)2 where rk is the of dipoles are uncorrelated, it then follows that R(Qr) =
range to the chaff cloud when the kth sample was F(T)R.,r).
recorded and ro = 10 km is an arbitrary reference range. Notice that the effect of gate movement is to multiply
(This correction is derived from the fact that the echo R,('r) by a Bartlett (triangular) window; the width of the
power Pk = a' is inversely proportional to r4 when the base of the triangle is 2T, where T = Ar/1 'r. This is
entire chaff cloud lies within the beam, as is the case for equivalent to convolving the spectral density Sz(f) with a
new chaff.) As we mentioned earlier, the theoretical Bartlett spectral window with mainlobe width Wg = 2/T
model predicts that the ZkS may be considered to be = 21 r/Ar [9]. Thus, gate movement broadens the
samples from a zero-mean stationary complex Gaussian spectral density; increasing | or decreasing the
random process. If the Gaussian assumption is valid, then pulsewidth broadens Sz(f).
ak should be a Rayleigh random variable, ok should be It should be emphasized that the above analysis is
uniformly distributed between 0 and 2Tr, and xk and Yk valid only when rectangular pulses are transmitted, and
should be identically-distributed zero-mean Gaussian no distortion of the received pulses, such as due to
random variables. These properties were tested for several matched filtering, occurs in the receiver prior to
sets of chaff data and we could find no reason to reject sampling. Both radars used in this study transmit 1 ,us
the Gaussian-random-process model. rectangular pulses and have mixer-preamplifier
Spectral density estimates are calculated as follows. bandwidths of 10 MHz; hence the received pulses are not
First the mean is subtracted from the {Zk} sequence (the distorted prior to sampling and the above model for the
mean never differs much from zero). The sample effect of gate movement is applicable for the
autocorrelation sequence is then calculated: experimental data considered here.
1 N-m- I Since the fundamental process is the motion of the
r(m-= N- N- Zk+mZk 0' m 'M dipoles, it is desirable to remove the effect of gate
m k=O
movement, which depends on the speed of the aircraft,
= r*(-m), -M ' m < 0. and to restore the relationship between Sz(f) and p(f).
(The complex conjugate of r is denoted by r*.) The From (5) we see that this may be accomplished by
autocorrelation sequence r(m) is multiplied by a multiplying the sample autocorrelation sequence r(m) by
Hamming lag window w(m) where g(m) = 1/(1 - 1rmAti/lAr)
w(m) = 0.54 + 0.46 cos(wm/M) (4) for -M ' m . M. (This assumes that i|MAti < Ar,
- M ' m ' M, and the spectral density estimate S,(f) is which is always the case for the values of M that we have
obtained by transforming the sequence w(m)r(m), -M ' used.) Typically, Ir|I is between 140 and 200 ms-'; in the
m s M using a fast Fourier transform routine. The worst case when r = 200 ms- , the width of the
Hamming lag window is used because the corresponding mainlobe of the Bartlett spectral window is Wg = 21|rI/
spectral window has low side lobes [8]. Selection of the Ar = 2.7 Hz. Assume that Sz(f) is Gaussian shaped
lag window length M is discussed below. with or = 1 ms so that the standard deviation of Sz(f)
is Uf = 2.8 Hz at 420 MHz (UHF), and af = 62.6 Hz at
9.390 GHz (X-band). Thus at UHF the broadening of
Sz(f) due to gate movement is significant and the
A. Range-Gate Movement correction for gate movement has a noticeable effect,
while at X-band the effect of gate movement is
In Section II we noted that Sz(f) has approximately insignificant.
the same shape as p(f), the probability density function
of the dipole Doppler shifts. For new chaff, however, this
relationship is modified because dipoles continuously B. Spectral Moments
enter and leave a gate moving at a fixed distance behind
the aircraft. At any given time, dipoles in a range- After the estimate of Sz(f) is computed, the noise
resolution cell of width Ar = ctpw12 contribute to the level is estimated by finding the average value of Sz(f)
echo signal; let r denote the radial speed of the aircraft over frequency bands where the chaff signal clearly is not
and assume that chaff is dispensed at a constant rate so present. The average noise level is subtracted and then
that the number of dipoles in the resolution cell is Sz(f) is normalized to unity area to obtain w(f). The
constant. The fraction of the dipoles contributing to both meanfo and the rth central moments, r = 2, 3, 4, are
z(t) and z(t + T) is F(T) where calculated using
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fo = f w(f) df
mr = (ffo)rw(f)df.
The standard deviation is af = \/2. The mean and
standard deviation of the velocity density function q(v)
are then vo = -foX/2 and cr, = a1X/2. In many cases
w(f) is not Gaussian shaped; the dimensionless quantities
skewness and kurtosis give some information about the
shape of w(f):
skewness = M31af
kurtosis = (m4/Of4) - 3.
Nonzero skewness indicates a lack of symmetry around
the meanfo, with negative (positive) skewness showing
that w(f) is skewed to the left (right). Kurtosis is a
measurement of the peakedness of the curve and is zero if
w(f) is Gaussian shaped. Positive (negative) kurtosis
indicates the curve is more (less) peaked than a Gaussian
curve.
C. Windowing
The choice for the length M of the Hamming lag
window in (4) is of importance. Using a lag window to
smooth the spectral density estimate helps us obtain a
better idea of the true shape of the spectral density;
however, if M is made too small, then the spectral
density estimate is overly smoothed and broadened.
Jenkins [9] has defined two quantities, the number of
degrees of freedom (DF) and the bandwidth (BW), that
are useful for selecting appropriate values for M. It may
be shown that for the Hamming lag window
DF = 2.798 NIM
and the BW in Hz is
BW(Hz) = 1.399/MAt.
The greater DF is, the less variance there is in the
estimate of Sz(f). A commonly accepted general rule is
that NIM should be at least 10 [10, p. 2]; that is, DF
should not be much less than 30. The BW may be
thought of as the width in the frequency domain of the
smoothing window associated with the lag window w(r).
Clearly, to avoid overly broadening the spectral density
estimate, one should make the bandwidth narrower than
the peak where S,(f) is significantly greater than zero.
For example, the interval fo ± 3of usually contains the
region where w(f) is significantly greater than zero; thus
BW should be some fraction of 6Uf.
In practice, when analyzing a given data set, we first
computed one or more pilot estimates of S,(f) to get an
approximate value for 0f. For the final spectral density
estimate, M was chosen so that DF - 26 and BW < 201.
Applying this procedure to simulated sets of data with
known spectral densities we found that the error in the
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final estimate of orf was nearly always less than 10
percent. In later sections, it is seen that the above
constraints on DF and BW had an impact on the record
lengths used to compute spectral density estimates.
D. Nonlinearities and Quantization
The recorded complex value Zr = arexp(jOr) may
differ from the true value z = a exp(jO) (echo signal
plus receiver noise) for two reasons: 1) nonlinearities in
the logarithmic amplifier and phase detector, and
2) quantization errors. The mean square error is
Pe= E[Iz - zr12]
J= ddra
=z
0
0 '1Zr2 f(a,0) dO da (6)
where for a Gaussian process the joint probability density
function f(a, 0) is of the form f(a, 0) =
(a/2Trgr2)exp(-a2/2or2). The average signal power is PS
= E[ zj2] = 2&f2. Using typical measured response
curves for the logarithmic amplifier and phase detector
and taking into account the quantization errors, the
integral in (6) was evaluated numerically for the values of
Ps encountered in the experimental data sets. The
resulting error-to-average-signal power ratios P,1P, range
from 0.003 to 0.004 ( - 25.2 to - 24.0 dB). Thus a small
fraction of the area under the spectral density curves is
due to the error z - Zr introduced by nonlinearities and
quantization.
V. CONICAL-SCAN MODULATION
As mentioned previously, the X-band radar used to
collect chaff data employs conical scanning to generate
error signals for the control system which maintains the
beam on target. Unfortunately, the statistics of the
received signal are modified by the modulation induced
by this scanning. This section discusses the effect of
conical-scan modulation on the echo signal from a chaff
cloud; in particular, an expression is given that shows
how the spectral density Sz(f) is modified by the
modulation. Fortunately, it turns out that for the practical
cases of interest in this study, conical-scan modulation
has only a slight effect on Sz(f).
Let zm(t) and z(t) denote, respectively, the complex
envelope of the echo signal when conical-scan modulation
is and is not present. In the Appendix it is shown that
Zm(t) =m(t)z(t)
where the modulation function m(t) may be approximated
by an expression of the form
m(t) = MO + BMO cos (2-rf,t + o)
where B may be estimated using the amplitude data for a
given chaff data set. The scan frequency fs is known; Mo
and ot are unknown. The autocorrelation function of
zm(t) obtained by time-averaging is then
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 R, (T) = Zm (t + T) z * (t) is the variance of q(v) and b is given by (10).
Rearranging (13) we obtain
= [M2 + (M2B2/2)cos(2fTf3'r)]Rz(T) (7)
TV =p13(vm (14)
where Rz(T) is the autocorrelation function of z(t) as
usual. where
Taking the Fourier transforms of both sides of (7) p = (1 - )2 12
2bV2/orm . (15)
gives the relationship between the spectral densities of
Zm(t) and z(t): Finally, an expression for the error in a, due to conical-
scan modulation is
Sz (f) = M2Sz(f) + (M2B214)Sz( -fs) e= Jvm - V
+ (M2B214)Sz(f + f). (8) = (1 - P3)am. (16)
Thus S,
(f) is the sum of three terms. The first term is
S,(f) scaled by MW; the second and third terms are S,(f) Given the distortion ratio DS, the scan frequency fs, and
shifted by +f, and -fs, respectively, and scaled by UFvm, the error ea may be found using the relationships
M2B2/4. Let wm(f) and w(f) denote the normalized given above.
unity-area frequency density functions corresponding to An example of Sz(f) when conical-scan modulation is
S, (f) and S,(f), respectively; then present is shown in Fig. 1; the same 5 s of chaff data
were used to obtain this figure as were used for Figs. 6
wm(f) = (1 - 2b)w(f) + bw(f - f3)
+ bw(f + fs) (9) SPECTRRL DENSITY OF Z
0
where
b = B2/(4 + 2B2). (10)
0~
Define the conical-scan distortion ratio DS by
Ds= b/(l - 2b)
B2/4
= (1 1) too
-160 -80 80 160 320
so that DS is the ratio of the heights of the shifted 0
f (Hz)
240

components in wm(f), introduced by conical scanning, to Fig. 1. S.(f) when conical-scan modulation is present. The main peak
the height of the unshifted component. Since B may be is at fb 85.5 Hz and the secondary peaks are at f, fb - 34 Hz,
estimated from the experimental data as discussed in the and f. = fb + 34 Hz. The scan frequency is = 33 Hz.
Appendix, Ds may be estimated also. For the
experimental data we have analyzed, Ds has varied from and 7 in the Appendix. In this case, the spectral density
0.02 to 0.10, and the scan frequency f, has been between is very narrow so that it is possible to see the main peak
30 and 55 Hz.
and the two secondary peaks predicted by (8). From the
Of particular interest is the effect of conical scanning
on the mean vo and standard deviation or, of the velocity
Appendix, we have B = 0.49 and f, = 33 Hz. Therefore
the distortion ratio is DS = 0.06 by (1 1). Since S,(f) has
density function q(v). Letting qm(v) and q(v) denote the been normalized so that the height of the main peak atfb
density functions with and without conical-scan is 1.0 in Fig. 1, we expect by (8) that there should be
modulation, respectively, we obtain from (9) the two secondary peaks of height Ds = 0.06 added to Sz(f)
relationship at fb + fs. As may be seen in the figure, the results agree
qm(v) = (1 - 2b)q(v) + bq(v + vs) quite well with what we expect.
The estimate of the velocity standard deviation for
+ bq(v - v,) (12) Fig. 1, obtained as described in Section V, is oUvm =
where vs = -XfsI2 and b is given by (10). It may be 0.31 ms' . Using X = 0.0319 m and the values for DS
verified that vo is the same for both q,,(v) and q(v). and f given above, we find that vs = 0.53 ms -, ,B =
Using (12) it may be shown that the variance of qm(v) is 0.83, and ea = 0.05 ms-1; thus the estimate of the true
velocity standard deviation is ov = crvm - ea = 0.26
OT m = (V -
VO)2q,(v) dv ms l. The error ea = 0.05 ms 1 for this case is the
largest value for e, that we have encountered among all
= or + 2bv2 (13) of the chaff data sets that we have analyzed. For most
practical purposes, an estimate of av within ±+0.2 ms'
where of the true value is quite acceptable; therefore, the
somewhat surprising result is that the error in the estimate
=
v
f (V - vO)2q(v) dv of uv introduced by conical-scan modulation is negligible.
ESTES
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 VI. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS FOR MATURE CHAFF
This section discusses the results of the analysis of
data for several mature chaff clouds that have been in the
air for several minutes. As discussed below, data has
been obtained for two different radar frequencies under a
variety of wind conditions. Therefore, the range of values
given for the spectral width parameter u, is probably
representative of what would be encountered in practice.
Of interest are the effects, if any, of the chaff dipole
material and dispensing method on the spectral density
for a chaff cloud. Data for two different dipole types,
aluminum strips and aluminum-coated glass fibers, has
been analyzed in this study. Dispensing methods may be
classified as continuous or discrete. A continuously-
dispensed chaff cloud is formed by releasing dipoles at a
more or less uniform rate over a period of time, thus
forming a long chaff corridor. With discrete chaff units,
on the other hand, packages containing many dipoles are
released periodically and the dipoles disperse from the
opened packages. Roll chaff units were used to deploy
the continuously-dispersed chaff for which we have
experimental measurements. These units are made by
placing dipoles between two long strips of plastic which
are then rolled up; the chaff is dispensed by unrolling the
unit and letting the dipoles fall through a chute into the
airstream. A discrete chaff package may be simply a
cardboard box, filled with dipoles, that is dropped from
the aircraft. An improved type of discrete chaff unit is the
chaff cartridge which is a cylinder packed with dipoles
and fired much like a shotgun shell. Table I lists the
types of chaff considered in this study along with code
letters that will be used in later tables. Many of the chaff
units used in these experiments contain several dipole
lengths; most of the power in the echo signal is due to
dipoles of length approximately X/2, where X is the
TABLE I
Chaff Types
Type Code
Dipole Material
Aluminum strips AS
Aluminum-coated glass fibers AGF
Dispensing Method
Continuously dispensed, roll CR
Discrete unit, box DB
Discrete unit, cartridge DC
wavelength. (For the UHF radar, X/2 = 35.7 cm and for
the X-band radar, X/2 = 1.60 cm.)
Spectral density estimates were obtained for several
mature chaff data sets; the results shown in Table II are
representative of what we have found. For each data set
in the table, the radar and chaff type are indicated; also
shown is the slant range R to the chaff cloud. The
elevation from the radar to the chaff cloud is less than 20
degrees in all cases.
In Table II, the observation period is T = NAt,
where N is the number of pulses and At is the sample
period, which is the reciprocal of the pulse repetition
frequency. The record length T was chosen to be long
enough so that the spectral-estimate parameters DF and
BW could be maintained at satisfactory values. In all
cases, DF is no less than 27 and BW is substantially
narrower than the main spectral peak as discussed
previously. In the table, BW has been expressed in ms
so that it may be compared with the standard deviation or,
which is in the same units. The signal-analysis software
requires N, the number of samples in a data record, to be
an integral multiple of 1024. These constraints led to the
selection of the T = NAt, DF, and BW values indicated
in the table.

TABLE II
Estimates of Szf) for Mature Chaff

Chaff R T At BW vO aV
Number Radar Type (km) (s) (,us) DF (ms - ') (ms ') (ms ') Skewness Kurtosis Notes
M1 X-band AGF/CR 5 0.37 180 36 0.8 9.9 0.6 -0.2 0.3 1
M2 X-band AGF/CR 6 0.37 180 36 0.8 10.8 0.5 0.0 -0.4 1
M3 X-band AGF/DC 6 0.37 180 36 0.8 - 1.2 0.3 -0.1 2.2
M4 X-band AGF/DB 6 0.37 180 70 1.1 9.2 1.0 -0.3 0.3
M5 X-band AGF/CR 6 0.49 240 36 1.5 1.4 1.2 0.1 0.9
M6 X-band AGF/CR 5 0.49 240 70 1.1 4.7 1.0 0.3 0.6 2
M7 X-band AGF/CR 5 0.49 240 36 0.8 5.2 0.5 0.7 2.5 2
M8 X-band AGF/DC 8 0.37 360 48 1.0 6.3 0.6 -0.3 0.1 3
M9 X-band AGF/DC 8 0.37 360 48 1.0 6.3 0.6 -0.3 0.1 3
M1O X-band AGF/DC 8 0.37 360 48 1.0 4.8 0.6 0.0 0.3 3
Mul UHF AS/DB 13 3.2 1562 27 1.5 3.9 1.1 -0.1 0.0
M12 UHF AS/DB 9 3.2 1562 27 1.5 4.1 1.2 0.0 0.1
M13 UHF AS/DB 12 3.2 1562 27 1.5 3.3 1.2 -0.4 1.5
M14 UHF AGF/CR 19 8.0 1562 29 0.6 6.5 0.3 0.4 2.0
MI5 UHF AGF/CR 31 8.0 1562 29 0.6 8.5 0.3 -0.5 1.0
Notes: 1) Ml and M2 are in same chaff cloud, measurements made about 1 minute apart. Conical scanner is on for M1, off for M2.
2) M6 and M7 are in same chaff cloud, measurements taken a few minutes apart.'
3) M8, M9, and M1O are in same chaff cloud, observed simultaneously at three different ranges spaced 210 m apart.

IEEE TRANSACTIONS
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 Estimates of the mean vo and standard deviation av
for the q(v) curves corresponding to Sj(f) are shown in
Table IL, expressed in ms' . (The reader might find it
helpful to recall that 1 ms' = 1.94 knots.) We expect
vo to be about the same as the average radial component
of the wind velocity. The or, values for mature chaff vary
from 0.3 to 1.2 ms-'; this range of values is consistent
with the previous results summarized in Nathanson [61 for
measurements made at C-band and an unknown
frequency. No obvious correlation between ov and either
vo or the chaff type is apparent. We should remark that in
all cases the region where S,(f) is significantly greater
than zero is concentrated around the frequency
corresponding to vo. Curiously, vo is positive (indicating
the chaff cloud is outbound) in all but one case, even
though the data sets were recorded on several different
days; apparently this has to do with the tendency of the
prevailing coastal winds to be from a particular direction
at the radar sites.
As Lawson [5] observed, one expects the spectral
width urv to depend on the average speed and gustiness of
the wind. Data sets Ml, M2, M4, M8, M9, and M0O
were obtained on a windy day with wind speeds up to 10
ms- 1 (20 knots) at the radar site; data set M3, on the
other hand, was obtained on a calm day with practically
no wind. (The wind speeds at the radar site for the other
data sets were generally between these two extremes.)
Notice that cv ranges from 0.5 ms- 1 to 1.0 ms- 1 on the
windy day, but is only 0.3 ms- 1 on the calm day.
Although these results are consistent with what we
expect, it is not possible to quantify this effect further
since the wind conditions at the location of the chaff
cloud are unknown and may be quite different from any
measured conditions at the radar site.
Note that for the UHF data, it was necessary to use
time records several seconds in length to obtain
satisfactory values for DF and BW, whereas for X-band
data, time records less than 0.5 s long were adequate.
The question naturally arises as to whether or not the
stationary random process model is appropriate over time
intervals of several seconds. To examine the stationary
hypothesis, we took over 5 s of X-band data for one chaff
cloud (Ml in Table II) and computed S,(f) estimates for
several subintervals as indicated in Table III. The
variation in vo and av over the time period is shown in
Table ILL. The fact that vo and crv do not vary
significantly over the 5 s time period suggests that it is
reasonable to consider the random process as being
TABLE III
Five Seconds of X-Band Mature-Chaff Data
Time Period vO
(s) (ms -')
0.00-0.37 9.9
1.26-1.63 9.6
2.52-2.87 9.9
3.78-4. 15 9.8
5.04-5.41 9.8
ESTES ET AL: CHAFF RADAR ECHO CHARACTERISTICS
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stationary. Similar results have been obtained using 5 s
time records from other X-band mature chaff data sets.
Although this is not conclusive evidence, these results do
suggest that it is reasonable, when necessary, to use
several seconds of UHF mature chaff data for making
spectral density estimates.
Another concern is the effect of conical-scan
modulation on the estimate of S,(f). The same chaff
cloud was observed by the X-band radar when data sets
M1 and M2 were recorded about one minute apart. The
conical scanner was operating for data set M1, but was
disabled for data set M2. Thus, these two data sets may
be compared to see what effect conical scanning has on
S,(f). Plots of the S,(f) estimates for data sets Ml and
M2 are th solid-line curves shown in Figs. 2 and 3,
respectively. The fact that these curves are very similar,
with approximately the same o, (Table II), supports the
analysis in the previous section which showed that
conical-scan modulation does not have a great effect on
SZ(f)
SPECTRRL DENSITY OF Z
Z0
crn
-880 -800 -720 -640 -560 -480 -400
f (Hz)
Fig. 2. Sz(f) for mature-chaff set Ml (solid line). The dashed line is
the Gaussian-shaped approximation with vo = 9.9 ms- and r, = 0.6
ms . Conical-scan modulation is present.
SPECTRRL DENSITY OF Z
0
o
CD
N
-880 -800 -720 -640 -560 -480 -400
f (Hz)
Fig. 3. S,(f) for mature-chaff data set M2 (solid line). The dashed
line is the Gaussian-shaped approximation with vo = 10.8 ms- ' and a,,
= 0.5 ms . The conical scanner was disabled (compare with Fig. 2).
Also of interest is how well a Gaussian-shaped curve
(x, represents the actual shape of S,(f). The dashed-line
(ms -') curve in Fig. 2 is Gaussian shaped, with the same mean
0.6 vo and standard deviation rv, and enclosing the same area
0.5 as the solid-line curve. In this case, the spectral density is
0.6 approximated quite well by a Gaussian-shaped curve. Of
0.6 all the mature-chaff data sets we have analyzed, the one
0.6
for which the Gaussian-shaped curve gives the poorest
15
 approximation to the spectral density estimate is data set
M7 (Fig. 4). The skewness and kurtosis numbers in Table
II give some idea of how well the spectral densities are
approximated by Gaussian-shaped curves; the more these
numbers differ from zero, the less Gaussian shaped is
Sz(f).
SPECTRRL OENSITT OF Z
0 The results of the analysis of new chaff data from six
:z
D
the aircraft moves away from the release point, the chaff
echo appears in each of the trailing gates in succession.
By carefully analyzing the plots, we were able to
determine time intervals during which the chaff unit was
present in each of the gates. During the time interval used
for the analysis of data from a particular gate, nearly all
of the chaff dipoles were present in that gate. In this way
we found appropriate time records for the analysis of
each gate.
different aircraft runs are shown in Table IV. For all of

these runs, a jet aircraft was used to dispense the chaff.

O.
-560 -480 -400 -320 -240 -160
f (Hz)
Fig. 4. S.(f) for mature-chaff data set M7 (solid line). In this case,
the Gaussian-shaped curve (dashed line) does not fit the spectral density
estimate very well.
VIl. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS FOR NEW CHAFF
As mentioned previously, new-chaff data was
obtained by tracking an inbound aircraft as it dispensed
chaff; the echo signals received in the aircraft gate and
one or more trailing gates were digitized and recorded.
For continuously-dispensed chaff, echo signals were
present in all of the gates while chaff was being
dispensed. To analyze continuously-dispensed new-chaff
data, we selected records from each of the gates for
approximately the same time periods and calculated
spectral density estimates for each of the gates, applying
the correction for gate movement discussed earlier.
For runs in which the aircraft dispensed discrete chaff
units, the analysis procedure was somewhat different.
From plots of the amplitude signal in each of the gates,
one may observe that after a chaff unit is released, its
echo first appears in the leading gate with the aircraft; as
Only the results for the trailing gates are shown in the
table; results for chaff in the same gate as the aircraft are
not complete at this time. The gate position in the table is
the distance behind the aircraft of the center of the gate.
80
For example, since the range resolution is Ar = 150 m,
chaff dipoles between 135 m and 285 m behind the
aircraft contribute to data set N1 in the table since the
gate is 210 m behind the aircraft.
In general, the (x, values tend to be larger for new
chaff than for mature chaff as may be seen by comparing
Tables II and IV. Presumably this is a result of the
increased turbulence associated with the wake of the
aircraft; that is, the turbulence gives the dipoles a wider
distribution of velocities. The o1, values in these data sets
range from 0.7 to 2.7 ms '. The shapes of the Sz(f)
curves for new chaff are not much different than for
mature chaff. For new-chaff data set N9, the Gaussian -
shaped curve gives the poorest approximation to the
estimate of Sz(f) (Fig. 5). It may be observed that u1,
tends to be larger in the gate nearest the aircraft; no doubt
that is a result of there being more turbulence in the wake
near the aircraft.
It is interesting to trace the evolution of v0 and ov for
a chaff cloud from the time it is dispensed until it
becomes a mature chaff cloud. The same chaff cloud was
observed for X-band data sets NI (210 m behind the
aircraft), N2 (420 m), and MI (mature chaff, two min.
TABLE IV
Estimates of S.(f) for New Chaff

Gate
Chaff Position R T At BW vo Aircraft
Number Radar Type (m) (km) (s) (pLs) DF (ms ') (ms ') (ms-') Skewness Kurtosis Run
N1 X-band AGF/CR 210 5 0.37 180 70 1.5 8.1 1.2 0.2 - 0.4 1
N2 X-band AGF/CR 420 5 0.37 180 70 1.5 8.1 1.1 0.1 -0.5 1
N3 X-band AGF/DC 210 8 0.37 180 112 2.4 4.2 2.2 -0.7 1.0 2
N4 X-band AGF/DC 420 8 0.37 180 70 1.5 4.1 1.3 - 0.3 0.6 2
N5 X-band AGF/CR 210 8 0.37 360 48 1.0 6.2 0.9 0.3 0.2 3
N6 X-band AGF/CR 420 8 0.37 360 48 1.0 6.5 0.9 -0.4 -0.1 3
N7 UHF AGF/CR 150 20 3.2 1562 27 1.5 0.9 2.1 0.7 1.1 4
N8 UHF AGF/CR 300 20 3.2 1562 27 1.5 2.9 0.7 1.2 6.7 4
N9 UHF AGF/CR 450 20 3.2 1562 27 1.5 3.4 0.8 1.2 2.4 4
NIO UHF AGF/CR 150 21 3.2 1562 43 2.4 0.9 2.7 1.2 2.4 5
NIl UHF AGF/CR 300 21 3.2 1562 43 2.4 1.9 1.6 0.4 0.9 5
N12 UHF AGF/CR 450 21 3.2 1562 27 1.5 1.9 1.2 0.4 5.1 5
N13 UHF AS/DB 150 9 1.6 1562 30 3.3 1.3 2.0 0.3 0.2 6
N14 UHF AS/DB 300 9 1.6 1562 26 2.9 2.0 1.5 0.1 0.3 6
N15 UHF AS/DB 450 9 1.6 1562 26 2.9 2.8 1.5 0.4 0.3 6

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 SPECTRRL DENSITY OF Z
9 chaff environment that would be encountered by an air-
z0
(J)
N
cl
0~
6
0 processor that obtains an estimate of the chaff spectral
-20 -16 -12 -8
f(Hz)
-4 0 4
Fig. 5. Sz(f) for new-chaff data set N9 (solid line). Notice that the
Gaussian-shaped curve (dashed line) underestimates the right-hand tail.
after dispensing). For these three data sets, v0 is 8.1, 8. 1,
and 9.9 ms ', respectively, while ox, is 1.2, 1. 1, and 0.6
ms- i, respectively. At the instant when chaff is released
into the air, it has the same negative radial velocity as the
inbound aircraft; therefore, its initial v0 is negative and a
finite amount of time is required for v0 to approach the
radial wind velocity. Since the average radial velocity v0
for the new chaff and mature chaff do not differ greatly,
we are led to conclude that the dipoles have nearly
reached the ambient wind velocity at 210 m behind the
aircraft. The radial velocity of the aircraft is 1 17 ms- 1;
therefore, dipoles 210 m behind the aircraft have been in
the air about 1.8 s. On the other hand, orv decreases from
1.2 ms - at 210 m behind the aircraft to 0.6 ms- 1 for
the mature chaff; this is best explained by there being
more turbulence in the wake of the aircraft.
For UHF chaff, a somewhat different picture emerges.
For example, consider data sets N13 (150 m behind the
aircraft), N14 (300 m), N15 (450 m), and M12 (mature
chaff, one min after dispensing). For these four data sets,
v0 is 1.3, 2.0, 2.8, and 4.1 ms'l, respectively, and av is
2.0, 1.5, 1.5, and 1.2 ms -, respectively. The trend in
the values for the radial velocity v0 suggests that the
dipoles have not yet reached their final velocity at 450 m
behind the aircraft; since the radial velocity of the aircraft
is 103 ms -, dipoles 450 m behind the aircraft have been
in the air for 4.4 s. Similar trends in v0 have been
observed for the other UHF data sets we have analyzed.
It thus appears that the heavier UHF dipoles require more
time than the small X-band dipoles to reach the velocity
of the ambient winds. On the other hand, for both UHF
and X-band chaff, uyv tends to decrease as the distance
behind the aircraft increases and the chaff is subjected to
less turbulence.
It is of interest to know what relationship exists, if
any, between aspect angle and the statistics for chaff in
the wake of an aircraft. Since data was obtained for only
a narrow range of aspect angles (8°-20°), these
experimental results do not provide an answer to this
question. It would be desirable in the future to obtain
experimental data for several different aspect angles so
that the dependence of v0 and or, on aspect angle could be
studied.
The results given in this section for chaff in the wake
of an aircraft are of interest for at least two reasons. One
horized licensedESTES ET AL:
use limited CHAFF
to: J.R.D.
RADAR ECHO CHARACTERISTICS
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reason is that these results are applicable to modeling the
to-air missile launched from behind a target aircraft that
is dispensing chaff. A second reason has to do with the
broadening of the chaff spectral density caused by the
turbulence in the wake of an aircraft; similar broadening
probably also occurs in the wake of an aircraft flying
through a chaff corridor. An adaptive search-radar signal
density before an aircraft has entered a chaff corridor,
and uses this information to approximate the optimal
detector has been proposed by Sawyers [21. Unless the
spectral broadening is taken into account, the
performance of this processor may be degraded because
of numerous false alarms in the wake of the aircraft as it
flies through the chaff.
VIlI. CONCLUSIONS
The purpose of this paper was to describe the
procedures used in these experiments and to discuss the
results obtained thus far. For mature chaff, our study
complements previous results reported by other
researchers. In particular, the range of values for the
velocity standard deviation cr, that we have found, from
0.3 to 1.2 ms' at UHF and X-band, is consistent with
previous results at C-band. The results for new chaff
suggest that or, is generally greater for chaff in the wake
of the dispensing aircraft than for mature chaff clouds,
with the larger ao values occurring in the gate nearest the
aircraft. In gates 150 m behind the aircraft, cu, estimates
were between 2.0 and 2.7 ms'. At 450 m behind the
aircraft, the crv estimates ranged from 0.8 to 1.5 ms'. In
addition, the average radial velocity v0 varied with
distance behind the aircraft. The experimental results
reported here are relevant to the design and testing of
radar signal processors intended to detect and track
aircraft in the presence of chaff. For example, the
numerical values given for v0 and crv will be applicable to
the simulation of realistic chaff signals for testing signal
processors.
The effect of range-gate movement on S2(f), the
spectral density of the complex envelope, was discussed
and the method used to correct for this effect was
derived. Expressions describing the distortion in Sz(f)
caused by conical-scan modulation and the error in the
estimate of crv due to this modulation were obtained.
In the future, we will report the results of the analysis
of data for chaff in the same gate as the aircraft. The
analysis in this case is complicated by the presence of
both the chaff and aircraft signals in the data to be
analyzed.
APPENDIX: CONICAL-SCAN MODULATION
FUNCTION
The effect of conical scanning is to multiply the
complex envelope of the echo signal from a target not on
17
 the boresight of the radar by a modulation function m(t) where a and a-m denote the time averages of a(t) and
that is periodic at the scan frequencyf,. In this Appendix, am(t). Using (A3) and (A4) and assuming that Ca(T) > 0
an approximate expression for m(t), based on a few as T > ox, it may be verified that am = Moia and as
reasonable assumptions together with experimental T > x0,
results, is obtained.
Let zm(t) and z(t) denote the received complex- Ca (T) -*[E
m kl=1
(M2/2) cos(k2rrf2T)](a)2. (A5)
envelope signals with and without conical-scan
modulation, respectively. The unmodulated signal z(t) is A plot of C, (7) for a data set where conical-scan
the sum of the echoes from the K dipoles in the range modulation is present is shown in Fig. 6. The
cell: corresponding spectral density S, (f) = i; [Ca (T)] is
K shown in Fig. 7. Notice that for large values of T, C (T)
z(t) = 2 akexp[j(2lTfkt + Ok)].
k= 1
RUTOCOVRRIRNCE OF RMPLITUOE
`P
For the kth dipole, the parameters ak, Ok, andfk depend 0

on the orientation, range, and radial velocity of the 'I

dipole. An expression for zm(t) may be obtained by

modifying the above expression to include modulation pO\
functions mk(t) that account for the varying strengths of O

the echoes from the dipoles due to the changing beam U

position: (I

K 80 160 240 320 400 480

Zm(t) = 1
k=1
mk(t) ak exp [14k(t)1 (Al) (MILLISEC)
Fig. 6. Ca (T) when conical-scan modulation is present. The scan
where 4)k(t) = 2Tfkt + Ok. Assume that 1) all of the frequency isf = 1/TO = 33 Hz. For large values of T, Ca (T) A cos
dipoles lie within the mainlobe of the antenna pattern, 2WTf,T. Obtained using 5 s X-band mature-chaff data.
and 2) the phase of the antenna pattern is constant across
the mainlobe. Under these assumptions, the modulation SPECTRRL DENSITY OF RMPLITUDE
functions mk(t) will be real-valued and will depend on the ,-fs = 33 Hz

shape of the transmitted beam pattern, the scan rate, and

the positions of the dipoles relative to the rotation axis. If
it is also true that the dipoles are not widely dispersed (P

I
-

(this is especially true for new chaff observed a short Z:

time after dispensing), then the modulation functions J",
mk(t) will all be approximately equal to a common
modulation function m(t). With all of these assumptions, (,6 - 9

(Al) simplifies to
U
0 80 160 240 320 400 480
f (HZ)
K
Fig. 7. Sa (f) obtained by transforming Ca (T) in Fig. 6. Notice the
Zm(t) = m(t) E ak exp[I4k(t)I spike at the scan frequency f5 = 33 Hz.
k=I

= m(t)z(t)
= m(t)a(t)exp[jO(t)I. (A2 is approximately a cosine wave at the scan frequency f3
= 33 Hz; this fact is brought out by the spike present in
Eq. (A2) says that zm(t) equals z(t) multiplied by a Sa (f) at f. Similar results have been obtained for the
real-valued modulation function m(t) which is periodic at other chaff data sets we have analyzed where conical-scan
the scan frequency; the amplitude of z,0(t) is given by modulation is present. Based on these results, we
am(t) = m(t)a(t), where a(t) is the amplitude of z(t). conclude that to a good approximation we may take Mk
Since m(t) is periodic at the scan frequencyf5, it may be = 0 for k - 2 in (A3) and (A5). Thus m(t) is of the
written as a Fourier series form
m(t) = Mo + M, cos(2rrft + a1 ). (A6)
m(t) = Mo + >
k= 1
M, cos(k2rrf, t + ak). (A3)
A useful relationship between Mo and M1 may be
Let CaQ(r) and CQjr) denote the time-average obtained as follows. By (A5) and (A6), the parameter
autocovariance functions of a(t) and a,0(t), respectively, M, is related to the amplitude of the cosine wave in
Ca (v) by M,(d)2I2 = A. Combining this result with the
Ca(T) = a(t + 7)a(t) - (a)2 fact that ai,m = Moia and eliminating ai we find that
Ca (r) = am(t + T)am(t) (am)2
- (Ad4) M, = BMo (A7)

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 where data for a given chaff data set. For the example shown in
Fig. 6, A = 0.12 and the amplitude data has been
B = /'liA/am. (A
normalized so that am = 1.0; thus B = X =
Since both A and a7m may be estimated using recorded 0.49.
amplitude data, B may be estimated also. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
In summary, we have found that the modulation
function may be approximated by an expression of the We are grateful to Wayne Sefcik of Pinson
form Associates, Inc., for helping us understand the details of
the data collection system and to Jim Wright and Jeff
m(t) = Mo + BMo cos(2Tf5t + al) Kimbel at the University of Texas for programming
where B may be estimated from the recorded amplitude assistance.

REFERENCES Threshold Signals, Vol. 24, M.I.T. Radiation Laboratory

Series.
New York: McGraw-Hill, 1950.
[1] Fritz, W.D. (1982) [6] Nathanson, F.E. (1969)
Trial mace-NATO cooperation. Radar Design Principles.
Journal of Electronic Defense, 5, 5 (May 1982), 56-61. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969.
[2] Sawyers, J.H. (1980) [71 Kropfli, R.A., and Hildebrand, P.H. (1980)
Adaptive pulse-Doppler radar signal processing using the Three-dimensional wind measurements in the optically clear
maximum entropy method. planetary boundary layer with dual-Doppler radar.
EASCON '80 Record (1980), 454-461. Radio Science, 15, 2 (Mar.-Apr. 1980), 283-296.
[3] Haykin, S., Currie, B.W., and Kesler, S.B. (1982) [8] Blackman, R.B., and Tukey, J.W. (1958)
Maximum-entropy spectral analysis of radar clutter. The Measurement of Power Spectra.
In Proceedings of the IEEE, 70, 9 (Sept. 1982), 953-962. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1958.
[4] DeLong, D.F., Jr., and Hofstetter, E.M. (1967) [9] Jenkins, G.M., and Watts, D.G. (1968)
On the design of optimum radar wavefonns for clutter Spectral Analysis and Its Applications.
rejection. San Francisco: Holden-Day, 1968.
IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, IT-13, 3 (July [10] Childers, D.G. (Ed.) (1978)
1967), 454-463. Modern Spectrum Analysis.
[5] Lawson, J.L., and Uhlenbeck, G.E. (Eds.) (1950) New York: IEEE Press, 1978.

ESTES
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use limited CHAFF
to: J.R.D. RADAR
Tata ECHO
Memorial CHARACTERISTICS
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20 use limited to: J.R.D. Tata IEEE
horized licensed
Memorial
Wilmot J. Estes (S'79) received the B.A. degree in mathematics from Washburn
University, Topeka, Kan., in 1973, the M.S. degree in mathematics from the
University of Illinois, Urbana, in 1975, and the M.S. degree in electrical engineering
from the University of Texas, Austin, in 1982.
From 1975 to 1977 he was employed as a mathematician at the Naval Surface
Weapons Center, Dahlgren, Va., where he was involved in the testing and analysis of
radar-control software. From 1980 to 1982 he was with Pinson Associates, Inc.,
Austin, Tex., where he conducted radar signature analyses. He is currently working
toward the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering at the University of Texas.
Robert H. Flake (S'55-M'63) received a B.S. degree in engineering physics in
1956, an M.S. degree in physics in 1960, and a D.Sc. in electrical engineering
(automatic control) in 1962 from Washington University, St. Louis, Mo. From 1960 to
1962 he was an Instructor in Electrical Engineering, and in 1962 he became an
Assistant Professor in Electrical Engineering at Washington University, St. Louis. In
1964 he joined Honeywell Aero Division in St. Petersburg, Florida, as a Senior
Development Engineer. He worked in an analysis group developing algorithms for
airborne computers in guidance and navigation systems.
Dr. Flake became an Assistant Professor in Electrical Engineering at the University
of Texas at Austin in 1966. He was subsequently promoted to Associate Professor and
to Professor of Electrical Engineering. From 1976 to 1978 he was Assistant Chairman
of the Electrical Engineering Department. He has been a consultant for Honeywell,
Tracor, Pinson Associates, Texas Environmental Analysts, Artech, and is currently
actively consulting for IBM and the Southwestern Public Service Company. His
research interests include pattern classification and nonlinear system modeling and
analysis.
Claud C. Pinson received his Bachelors and Masters degrees in electrical engineering
from Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind., and has worked in research and development
for thirty-five years. He is a retired Air Force Lt. Colonel and has worked in industry
for twenty-one years; the first four years with Tracor Inc. and the last seventeen as
President of Pinson Associates, Inc. For the past twelve years he has spearheaded an
extensive radar signature measurement Research and Development Program with the
United States Navy and the United States Army.
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