Influence of Range-Doppler Coupling on the Tracking Stability of Reentering Space Objects

Abstract

In this paper, peculiarities of automatic range tracking of the reentering space objects (SO) are studied. These SO are detected by chirp radar. Using linear frequency modulated (LFM) signals results in so-called range-Doppler coupling, which yields a displacement of measured position from a true range of moving SO. This effect may cause tracking failure therefore we present stability boundaries of the SO tracking. In addition, accuracy characteristics of the automatic range tracking algorithms estimating motion parameters of the reentering SO are evaluated.