{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T01:37:29Z","timestamp":1760146649803,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"23","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,11,25]],"date-time":"2024-11-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1732492800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["62201429","62192714","62101350","62361046","B18039","KGJ202X0X","QTZX22160","XJSJ23133","2023QN06003"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["62201429","62192714","62101350","62361046","B18039","KGJ202X0X","QTZX22160","XJSJ23133","2023QN06003"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Foreign Scholars in University Research and Teaching Programs","award":["62201429","62192714","62101350","62361046","B18039","KGJ202X0X","QTZX22160","XJSJ23133","2023QN06003"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["62201429","62192714","62101350","62361046","B18039","KGJ202X0X","QTZX22160","XJSJ23133","2023QN06003"]}]},{"name":"National Radar Signal Processing Laboratory","award":["62201429","62192714","62101350","62361046","B18039","KGJ202X0X","QTZX22160","XJSJ23133","2023QN06003"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["62201429","62192714","62101350","62361046","B18039","KGJ202X0X","QTZX22160","XJSJ23133","2023QN06003"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100012226","name":"Central Universities","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["62201429","62192714","62101350","62361046","B18039","KGJ202X0X","QTZX22160","XJSJ23133","2023QN06003"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["62201429","62192714","62101350","62361046","B18039","KGJ202X0X","QTZX22160","XJSJ23133","2023QN06003"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100012226","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Natural Science Foundation of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China","award":["62201429","62192714","62101350","62361046","B18039","KGJ202X0X","QTZX22160","XJSJ23133","2023QN06003"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["62201429","62192714","62101350","62361046","B18039","KGJ202X0X","QTZX22160","XJSJ23133","2023QN06003"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Sub-array-level digital arrays effectively diminish the computational complexity and sample demand of space-time adaptive processing (STAP), thus finding extensive applications in many airborne platforms. Nonetheless, airborne sub-array-level digital array radar still encounters pronounced performance deterioration in highly heterogeneous clutter environments due to inadequate training samples. To address this issue, a clutter-sensing-driven STAP approach for airborne sub-array-level digital arrays is proposed in this paper. Firstly, we derive a signal model of sub-array-level clutter sensing in detail and then further analyze the influence of the sidelobe characteristics of the conventional sub-array joint beam on clutter sensing. Secondly, a sub-array joint beam optimization model is proposed, which optimizes the sub-array joint beam into a wide beam with flat-top characteristics to improve the clutter-sensing performance in the beam sidelobe region. Finally, we decompose the complex optimization problem into two subproblems and then relax them into the low sidelobe-shaped beam pattern synthesisproblem and second-order cone programming problem, which can be effectively solved. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is validated in a real clutter environment through numerical experiments.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs16234401","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,11,25]],"date-time":"2024-11-25T08:38:24Z","timestamp":1732523904000},"page":"4401","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Clutter-Sensing-Driven Space-Time Adaptive Processing Approach for Airborne Sub-Array-Level Digital Array"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Youai","family":"Wu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"The National Key Laboratory of Radar Signal Processing, Xidian University, Xi\u2019an 710071, China"}]},{"given":"Bo","family":"Jiu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The National Key Laboratory of Radar Signal Processing, Xidian University, Xi\u2019an 710071, China"}]},{"given":"Wenqiang","family":"Pu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Shenzhen Research Institute of Big Data, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen 518172, China"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4204-010X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hao","family":"Zheng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The College of Electronic Information Engineering, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot 010010, China"}]},{"given":"Kang","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The National Key Laboratory of Radar Signal Processing, Xidian University, Xi\u2019an 710071, China"}]},{"given":"Hongwei","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The National Key Laboratory of Radar Signal Processing, Xidian University, Xi\u2019an 710071, China"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,11,25]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ward, J. 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