Emulation of Forward-looking Radar Technology for Threat Detection in Rough Terrain Environments: A Scattering and Imaging Study

Large-scale, full-wave modeling of multi-static target imaging in a rough-ground environment is described. The emulation methodology employs a parallelized three-dimensional near-field finite-difference time-domain algorithm in characterizing the electromagnetic scattering from the ground-surface and buried and on-surface targets in the form of landmines and unexploded ordnances. Subsequent focusing of the scattered fields into an image is obtained with the time-reversal technique. The emphasis of this study is on investigating the detectability of discrete ground targets in the presence of distributed variable ground clutter as relevant to performance prediction for ultra-wideband forward-looking radar applications.