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Simple modelling of the radar signature of helicopters

Conference Paper · October 2017

DOI: 10.1049/cp.2017.0425

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 Simple modelling of the radar signature of helicopters
Guillaume Point*, Laurent Savy*
∗
ONERA-CP, Chemin de la Hunière, BP 80100, 91123 Palaiseau cedex, France
Corresponding author email address: guillaume.point@onera.fr
Keywords: helicopters, blades, radar cross section,
radar signature, micro-Doppler, surveillance
Abstract
The problem of helicopter detection requires a simple and
fast modelling of rotorcraft signature for scenario testing.
Starting from a common straight wire model for the rotor
blades, we introduce a new way to simulate the main rotor
hub echo. We also take basic helicopter flight dynamics
into account by deforming the wire-blades in a realistic
way. The updated model gives results much closer to real
data, especially in terms of blade flash duration.
1 Introduction
Helicopters have always been deemed difficult targets to
detect with radar systems. Indeed, unlike fixed-wing air-
craft, rotorcraft are able to hover above ground at very
low speeds and, as such, can be effectively masked by clut-
ter [1]. Identification of this type of target is however a
strategic issue.
Fig. 1: example of blade flashes from the main rotor of
a Mil Mi-2 helicopter recorded in S-band (from
reference [2]).
Fortunately, helicopters also display a characteristic
micro-Doppler response because of the large rotating
parts it relies on to fly. This response takes the form
1
of a strong modulation of the radar cross-section (RCS)
in the time domain, with the formation of periodic surges
or flashes with a small duration (typically 100 µs in X-
band). These flashes occur when during their rotation,
the rotor blades are positioned perpendicular to the radar
wave vector (see Figure 1). As the period of blade flashes
allow extracting the rotation frequency of the main rotor,
and possibly of the tail rotor as well when it is present,
it becomes possible to identify a given helicopter model
with a very high confidence [3, 4].
It is particularly important to simulate the radar signa-
ture of rotorcraft to be able to adapt the detection or
identification strategy when facing non-cooperative heli-
copters. Full electromagnetic modelling is cumbersome
and difficult to adapt to various configurations [5]. We in-
stead present a parametric model based on treating rotor
blades as wires with infinitely small section. This model
is modular and easily tunable, offering different levels of
complexity for a better compatibility with various sce-
narios. In its full form, it takes basic flight dynamics into
account and is able to correctly reconstruct features seen
in real radar data recorded with the two radar systems
described in table 1.
Radar f0 B Polarization PRF
MERIC 10.1 GHz 300 MHz VV 8 kHz
Hycam 3 GHz 500 MHz VV 8 kHz
Table 1: characteristics of the radar systems used to
record the helicopter data presented in this ar-
ticle.
2 A simple model: blades as straight
wires
This simple model is able to faithfully reproduce basic
features of rotorcraft, namely blade flashes from rotors. It
consists in considering all blades as straight wires of null
section with a uniform reflectivity. As such, neglecting
multipath propagation, the helicopter signature can be
written as the coherent sum between the body response
and the response of all rotors:
NX
rotor
Saircraf t (t) = Sbody (t) + Srotor,j (t). (1)
j=1
The body response can be modelled in many ways, often 7aP
using a Swerling 1 fluctuation model [6]. The correspond- 0
experiment

normalizedhRCSh7dBP
ing baseband signal, neglecting intrapulse Doppler effect simulation

and supposing the target is not resolved (narrow band -5

experiment

normalizedhRCSh7dBP
-6 simulation

assumption), can be expressed as:

-8
< 125 µs
-10
q
Sbody (t) = σbody (t)ei(ϕ0 +ϕbody (t)+2πfD t) . (2) -10 2 ms

-12

Here, t is the radar slow time, σbody (t) is the instan- -15
60 65
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
taneous body RCS, which is exponentially-distributed, th7msP
th7msP

and ϕbody (t) is a uniformly-distributed variable in [0, 2π].

7bP
Both variables are exponentially-correlated with a ∼ 1 s
-20
decorrelation time, best matching the real time evolution experiment

normalizedhRCShPSD
simulation
of the body RCS. Also, ϕ0 is a constant phase shift tak- -30

ing the propagation from the radar to the body reference

7dBh[Hz-1]P
-40

point into account, and fD is the Doppler frequency shift -50

given by:
#» #» -60
V . k0
fD = − , (3) -70
π
#» #» -80
V being the aircraft velocity vector and k0 the radar wave -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4
Dopplerhshifth7kHzP
vector. The response of a rotor can be computed quite
easily in the frame linked to this rotor (see Figure 2). 7cP
1
experiment
First considering a single blade of length L and constant simulation
0.8
reflectivity per unit length α, the signature of the whole
blade in time, assuming the radar wavefront is planar 0.6

when reaching the target, is computed as the coherent 0.4

sum of the response of each blade element:
0.2
Z L #» #»
Sblade (t) = αei(ϕ0 +ϕ1 +2πfD t) e−2ik0 .eb (t)x dx 0
-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4
0 Dopplerhshifth7kHzP
#»  #»
i(ϕ0 +ϕ1 +2πfD t−k0 .e#»b (t)L)
sinc k0 .e#»b (t)L .

= αLe
(4)
Fig. 3: comparison between results from the model and
from real data recorded in X-band with an 8 kHz
repetition rate on a four-bladed helicopter. (a):
temporal signal, showing in the inset that mod-
Orotor elled blade flashes are much shorter than real
V
x rotation ones. (b): corresponding RCS power spectral
plane density (PSD). (c): cumulative integral of the
x xR Orotor x
Obody RCS PSD normalized by the the total RCS.
eb(t)
zR k0 yR
V
k0 xR Assuming a clockwise rotation direction, the position of
the blade in the rotor frame evolves in time following:

Fig. 2: geometry of the problem. The helicopter flies e#»b (t) = cos (Ω0 t + Φ0 ) e#xR» + sin (Ω0 t + Φ0 ) e#yR». (6)
#»
with a velocity vector V and is illuminated by
radar radiation with a corresponding wave vector Here Ω0 is the angular frequency for the blade rotation
#»
k0 . The main rotor rotation plane is defined such and Φ0 an arbitrary phase. The total response of a full
#»
as the projection of V in the rotor frame is along rotor with N identical blades reads:
xR .
N
#» # »
The phase shift ϕ1 corresponds to the propagation be- ei(ϕ0 +ϕ1,l +2πfD t−k0 .eb,l (t)L)
X
Srotor (t) =αL
tween the body reference point and the rotor reference l=1
 #»
point:
× sinc k0 .e#b,l
»(t)L ,

#» # » (7)
ϕ1 = k0 .Obody Orotor . (5)

2
where the blade vector e#b,l
»(t) is given by: 0

normalizedfRCSf(dB)
-5

#e »(t) = cos Ω t + Φ + 2π(l − 1) e# »

 
b,l 0 0 xR -10
N
-15
2π(l − 1) # »
 
+ sin Ω0 t + Φ0 + eyR . (8) -20
N
-25
#»
From equation (7) it is clear that when k0 is perpendicular -30
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
to one of the rotor blades, there will be a surge in the rotor
tf(ms)
signature. The corresponding half-width duration is equal
to:
-40
2 1.39λ
 

normalizedfRCSfPSD
τf lash = arcsin -45
Ω0 2πL cos(θel )
-50
0.44λ

(dBf[Hz-1])
≈ . (9) -55
Lλ LΩ0 cos(θel )
-60
For a low elevation angle θel , as the product LΩ0 , which -65
is the rotor speed at the blade tip, is always on the order -70
of 200 m · s−1 for helicopters, this gives a flash duration
-75
on the order of 30 µs in X-band and 100 µs in S-band. -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4
Dopplerfshiftf(kHz)
Comparative results between the model and real data
taken in X-band on a 4-bladed helicopter are shown in
Figure 3. The simulated helicopter is made up of the Fig. 4: temporal signal (top) and corresponding power
body, the main rotor and the tail rotor. Overall agree- spectral density (bottom) from the main rotor
ment is good, particularly with respect to flash period and hub model.
corresponding positioning of spectral lines. As shown in
Figure 3-(c), an excellent match is also obtained for the
RCS repartition between the body and the rotors. How- from the rotor axis is selected following an exponential
ever, there are several discrepancies: first, the model is probability density function (PDF):
unable to simulate the real shape of the spectrum at low 2 −2r/Lhub
Doppler shifts around the body line (Figure 3-(b)). Sec- fr,l (r) = e , (10)
Lhub
ond and even more important, the actual flash is made
up of several peaks with a total half-maximum duration where Lhub corresponds to the hub radius. This distri-
of ≈ 2 ms, almost two orders of magnitude higher than bution was chosen to yield the triangular shape of the
the expected value, which is equal to 31 µs. It is crucial RCS PSD seen in experimental data. As for the angular
for the simulation to be able to give a precise estimate repartition of points, it follows a PDF, fθ , made up of two
of the blade flash duration because this parameter has components:
a direct influence on the design of helicopter-dedicated  
π π
waveforms, particularly on the pulse repetition rate. fθ,l (θ) =0.05 U θblade,l − , θblade,l +
Nblade Nblade
This simple model therefore needs improvements. We will + 0.95 N (θblade,l + β, ∆θ) . (11)
progressively complexify it by taking new effects into ac-
count. Here U stands for the uniform distribution and N for the
normal distribution, θblade,l is the angular position of the
3 Main rotor hub blade l at t = 0, β is an angular shift to be adapted to a
given helicopter model and ∆θ is on the order of 1◦ . This
The triangular shape of the Doppler spectrum around the PDF therefore mimics the presence of strongly scattering
body line is attributed to the main rotor hub. This part, control rods positioned near each blade.
made up of mechanical pieces and rods ensuring the fix-
Once all points have been positioned, they are put into
ation and control of the rotor pitch, is indeed well known
rotation at the same angular frequency as the main rotor.
to have a characteristic signature [7, 8].
An example of signals obtained from this model using
To take this in consideration, we implemented a point N ∼ 1000 is given in Figure 4. The time signal displays
scatterer modelling of the rotor hub. It consists in initially surges of RCS in the form of “hub flashes” with a period
repartitioning N points in the main rotor plane for each corresponding to that of blade flashes (Figure 3), indi-
blade in a random fashion. The radial position of a point cating rotating parts fixed to the main rotor. As for the

3
corresponding spectrum, it now displays the same trian- zR
=V
a
gular shape and RCS density level drop as the real data. V r

za (
4 Full model: inclusion of flight r) =
zr (
dynamics r r)
receding
=V
r
blade Va
When a helicopter is flying, the main rotor blades are 0 advancing r
submitted to strong mechanical constraints. First, the lift V= blade
generated by the air flowing around the blades generates a
xR yR
torque which will tend to pull the whole blade upwards by
rotating it about its anchor point on the hub: this is called
blade flapping. Moreover, as the airflow speed increases
along the blade, the lift repartition is not homogeneous, zR
<V
a
and will be stronger at the blade tip than at its base. Vr
As a consequence, the blade will also bend upwards like zr ( za (r)
r)
r >V
r
a reversed cantilever beam [9]. Keeping a blade modelled receding Va
as a wire, this is equivalent as assuming that the blade is V
blade
advancing r
described in the rotor frame by the function: blade

zblade (x, y, t) = zblade (r, θ(t)) = zblade (r) = a0 r + b0 r3 . xR yR

(12)
The coefficients a0 and b0 are chosen such as the total
relative deformation at the blade tip is on the order of
10 % (typically a0 ∼ 0.01 and b0 ∼ 10−3 m−2 ). These
effects appear as soon as the helicopter takes off, even
while being in stationary flight.
Things become more complicated in advancing flight, as
the relative wind velocity encountered by rotor blades
changes between the advancing and the receding sides
(Figure 5). In this case, the function zblade will have a
sinusoidal time dependence, passing through a maximum
when the blade velocity is in the same direction as the he-
licopter velocity, and through a minimum at the opposite
position:
 zblade (r, t) = a(t)r + b(t)r3

a(t) = a0 + a1 sin (Ω0 t + Φ) (13)
b(t) = b0 + b1 sin (Ω0 t + Φ) .

Here, depending on the helicopter velocity, deformations
are expected to become more and more important as the
rotorcraft is flying faster. As a consequence a1 and b1
are expected to be on the order of a0 and b0 at top speed,
respectively. Furthermore, the rotation plane (xR , yR ) ro-
tates downwards by an angle θtilt around yR with respect
#»
to the helicopter air velocity V under the action of the
gyroscopic precession.
4.1 Results in X-band
Results obtained from this new model in X-band, includ-
ing the main rotor hub and main rotor flight dynamics,
are compared in Figure 6 with the same experimental data
that was previously used, that is signal from a represen-
tative 4-bladed helicopter.
Fig. 5: illustration of rotor blade deformations. In sta-
tionary flight (top), upwards flapping and bend-
ing remains constant throughout rotation be-
cause the blade airspeed does not change, while
in advancing flight (bottom), blade airspeed is
significantly higher for the advancing blade than
for the receding one due to the helicopter speed,
resulting in a stronger flapping and bending.
As seen in this figure, the addition of both the main ro-
tor hub and of the deformation of the main rotor blades
during flight results in a much accurate simulation. The
model is now able to yield complex blade flashes with a
duration similar to what is observed in reality, but also
of explaining secondary RCS surges as “hub flashes”. The
corresponding spectrum is also much closer to the real
RCS power spectral density with its broadly triangular
decrease from the body line. Periodic spectral lines from
the fast spinning tail rotor are also well reproduced, al-
though the level of real lines appears to change a lot from
one harmonic to the other, contrary to the simulated lines,
which tend to share a similar RCS level. This could come
from the fact that a uniform reflectivity was supposed for
the tail rotor blades, a hypothesis that appears not to be
entirely valid.
If a time-frequency analysis is performed both on the real
and the simulated signals, it also reveals some discrepan-
cies. First, the power difference for the tail rotor lines
already seen in the Doppler spectrum is clearly visible.
Second, there is a strong contribution from strongly scat-
tering elements in the main rotor hub for negative Doppler
shifts only, a phenomenon that our model is unable to

4
 0
maindrotordflash
experiment
simulation and spectrum and the real ones.
normalizeddRCSd8dBb

hubdflash
-2

-4 0
0 experiment
simulation

normalizeddRCSd8dBb

normalized]RCS]bdB)
-6 -2 hub]flash rotor]flash
-4
-8
-6
-5
-10 -8

-12 -10
18 19 20 21
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
td8msb
-10
td8msb

experiment -15
-20 0 50 100 150 200
normalizeddRCSdPSD

simulation
t]bms)
-30
8dBd[Hz-1]b

-40 -10
experiment

normalized]RCS]PSD
simulation
-50 -20

bdB][Hz-1])
-60
-30

-40
-70
-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4
Dopplerdshiftd8kHzb -50

-60
20
-70
-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4
40
experiment

Doppler]shift]bkHz)
td8msb

60

80

100 50

experiment
t]bms)

120
100
20

40 150
simulation
td8msb

60

80

100
50

simulation
120
t]bms)

-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
100
Dopplerdshiftd8kHzb

-70 -60 -50 -40 -30 150

normalizeddRCSdPSDd8dBd[Hz-1]b

-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
Doppler]shift]bkHz)
Fig. 6: comparison between results from the full heli-
copter modelling and experimental data in X- -60 -55 -50 -45 -40 -35 -30
band. As seen on the temporal signal (top), the normalized]RCS]PSD]bdB][Hz-1])
model is now able to mimic both the complex
blade flash structure (see inset) but also “hub
flashes”. The simulated RCS spectrum (bottom) Fig. 7: comparison between results from the full heli-
is also much more realistic than before (cf. Figure copter modelling and experimental data in S-
3-(b)), although a short-time Fourier transform band. As shown in the time signal (top), the
analysis (bottom) reveals some discrepancies. model is again able to faithfully reproduce com-
plex rotor flash structures. The resulting spec-
trum also appears very close to the real one (mid-
simulate because it supposes a constant reflectivity for dle). Finally a short-time Fourier transform anal-
the hub during rotation. However both the main body ysis (bottom) yields very comparable features,
line and the main rotor flashes have similar levels, as in- even in terms of signal level.
dicated by the closeness between the simulated time signal

5
4.2 Results in S-band References
Results from the full model in S-band are presented in fig- [1] P. Tait, Introduction to Radar Target Recognition,
ure 7, compared to experimental data in a similar fashion The IET, 2006.
as for X-band. Once more, our simple parametric model
proves able to correctly reproduce the main features of the [2] J. Misiurewicz, K. Kulpa, and Z. Czekala, Analysis
characteristic radar signature of rotorcraft. The temporal of recorded helicopter echo, in Radar 97 (Conf. Publ.
signal thus displays the main rotor flashes with a complex, No. 449), pages 449–453, 1997.
multi-peak structure. Hub flashes occurring close to the [3] C. E. Rotander and H. Von Sydow, Classification of
main rotor flashes are also successfully simulated. As for helicopters by the L/N-quotient, in Radar 97 (Conf.
the spectral signature, the simulated power spectral den- Publ. No. 449), pages 629–633, 1997.
sity curve appears very close to the real one. However
the discrepancies seen in X-band persist. There is still [4] L. Zuo, M. Li, X. W. Zhang, and Y. Wu, IET Radar,
a clear difference between the model and the experiment Sonar Navigation 7, 312 (2013).
concerning the level of spectral lines from the tail rotor.
As for the hub response assymmetry, the time-frequency [5] P. Pouliguen, L. Lucas, F. Muller, S. Quete, and
analysis now yields better results and does not show a C. Terret, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Prop-
significant difference between the advancing and the re- agation 50, 1396 (2002).
ceding sides of the hub in the experimental data. As a [6] M. A. Richards, J. A. Scheer, and W. A. Holm, edi-
whole, the model seems even better suited to the S-band tors, Principles of Modern Radar, volume 1, Scitech
signature than to the X-band one. This is hardly surpris- Publishing, Inc., Raleigh, NC, USA, 2010.
ing given that a longer wavelength tends to smooth small
details in the rotorcraft signature, particularly concerning [7] B. D. Bullard and P. C. Dowdy, IEEE Aerospace and
the main rotor hub. Electronic Systems Magazine 6, 28 (1991).
[8] J. Misiurewicz, K. Kulpa, and Z. Czekala, Analysis
5 Conclusion of radar echo from a helicopter rotor hub, in 12th
International Conference on Microwaves and Radar
In this article, we introduced a simple parametric model
MIKON-98, volume 3, pages 866–870, 1998.
for the baseband signature of rotorcraft, considering ro-
tor blades as wires. Starting from a straight-wire rotor [9] A. R. S. Bramwell, G. Done, and D. Balm-
modelling, which proved already accurate but could not ford, Bramwell’s helicopter dynamics, Butterworth-
properly simulate the real observed blade flash duration, Heinemann, Oxford, UK, 2nd edition, 2001.
we added first the effect of the main rotor hub, and later
took flight dynamics into account by deforming the wire-
blades to match realistic blade profiles. The resulting sim-
ulation was able to yield very realistic results, especially
concerning blade flash duration from the main rotor.
A drawback of this model is the need to adjust its param-
eters on real data to get the best match with the latter,
despite being based on the actual, physical deformation of
the main rotor blades. However, with enough experimen-
tal information, it could also become possible to extract
the blade geometry in real flight conditions by finding the
best fit parameters from the model.

Acknowledgements
This work has been funded by the French Ministry of De-
fense. We thank Philippe Brouard and Jean-Paul Mar-
cellin for fruitful and stimulating discussions.

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