Introduction to STAP: I. Radar context and stakes
Space-Time Adaptive Processing (STAP) is a technique useful when the distribution of disturbances exhibits a strong coupling between space (or angular) and time (or range, or Doppler) dimensions. A typical example of such situations is observed with airborne radars where clutter echoes from a specific direction come with a specific Doppler shift. The filtering of these clutter echoes will be more efficient if this relation is taken into account. The main examples of such situations for airborne radars are the detection of ground targets - where the targets are partly masked by clutter echoes coming through the main lobe of the antenna- and the detection of air targets, where the target returns are competing with clutter echoes coming from other directions, through the sidelobes of the antenna. Space-time adaptive processing is also helpful in many other situations, e.g. communication systems, satellite navigations systems, or active sonar detection systems, where similar couplings exist between the space and nine dimensions for disturbances (jamming, or reverberation in sonar).
stap radar gmti air to air post or pre doppler