On Information Resolution of Radar Systems

In target detection and tracking, the resolvability of multiple closely spaced targets of the sensor measurement is an important criterion for measuring the sensing ability of sensor systems like radar and sonar. The concept of information resolution for a sensor measurement system, which is defined in the framework of information geometry, is introduced. In particular, the information resolution of radar/sonar systems is generalised from the work on existing radar resolution pioneered by Woodward, et al. 1, 2 and defined on statistical manifolds where the intrinsic geometrical structure of both waveform, measurement, and noise models of the underlying sensing devices are conveniently characterized in terms of the Fisher information metric. This work is motivated by the fact that existing radar resolution identifies the ambiguities of the underlying waveforms regardless of the influence of noise but the latter often has significant contributions to outcomes such as target detection and tracking, radar imaging, etc. To this end, information resolution provides a unified statistical measure for the capability of sensing devices for a given application. Examples of basic radar measurements are presented to highlight the importance of information resolution for measurement systems in practical applications.