Airborne Radar Staggered PRF Coherent Processing Method for Down-Looking Target Detection

Abstract

Airborne radar plays a crucial role in detecting aerial targets, but its detection capability can be significantly affected by strong ground clutter when operating in down-looking mode. The range-Doppler (RD) results of ground clutter in airborne radar may overlap the range-Doppler results of the targets, causing target occlusion and rendering them undetectable. In addition to target detection, accurate extraction of target parameters is also of great importance. Due to the high-speed movement of the airborne platform, targets may exhibit range-Doppler ambiguity, necessitating the use of appropriate methods to resolve the range-Doppler ambiguity. Aiming at the problem of target occlusion by clutter with range-Doppler two-dimensional ambiguity during airborne radar down-looking target detection, this paper conducts a study on the detection of airborne radar down-looking targets based on orthogonal signals combined with pulse repetition frequency (PRF) staggered transmission. An optimization method is employed to design multiple sets of PRF values, aiming to reduce the radar blind zone. The range-Doppler two-dimensional ambiguity of targets is resolved using multiple sets of PRF, and coherent processing is performed on the corresponding echoes using the transmission intervals, maximizing the utilization of radar transmission energy. This approach enhances the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and improves the detection performance and parameter estimation accuracy, particularly for low SNR targets. The superiority of the proposed approach is demonstrated through simulation experiments.

Joint Implementation Method for Clutter Suppression and Coherent Maneuvering Target Detection Based on Sub-Aperture Processing with Airborne Bistatic Radar

“…The airborne bistatic radar has anti-jamming, anti-stealth, and anti-destructiveness capabilities and has provoked a great deal of attention and research [1][2][3][4]. The airborne bistatic radar consists of a separate transmitter and receiver on two different platforms functioning at high speed, causing problems in relation to clutter non-stationarity/nonhomogeneity and range cell migration (RCM)/Doppler migration (DM) when detecting a low-altitude maneuvering target, e.g., a missile, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), etc.…”