This work describes new methods on the modeling of the amplitude statistics
of airborne radar clutter by means of alpha-stable distributions. We devel
op joint target angle and Doppler, maximum likelihood-based estimation tech
niques from radar measurements retrieved in the presence of impulsive uncor
related noise modeled as an alpha-stable random process. We derive the Cram
er-Rao bounds (CRBs) for the additive Cauchy interference scenario to asses
s the best case estimation accuracy which can be achieved. In addition, we
introduce a new joint spatial- and Doppler-frequency high-resolution estima
tion technique based on the fractional lower order statistics of the measur
ements of a radar array. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed m
ethods can be of interest in the study of space-time adaptive processing (S
TAP) for airborne pulse Doppler radar arrays operating in impulsive interfe
rence environments.