Fast and Reftned Radar Processing For Maneuvering Target via Two-stage Integration Detection

Abstract

Reliable and fast detection of maneuvering target in complex background is important for both civilian and military applications. It is rather difficult due to the complex motion resulting in energy spread in time and frequency domain. Also, high detection performance and computational efficiency are difficult to balance in case of more integration pulses. In this paper, we propose a fast and refined processing method of radar maneuvering target based on hierarchical integration detection, utilizing the advantages of moving target detection (MTD), fractional Fourier transform (FRFT) and fractional ambiguity function (FRAF). The method adopts two-stage threshold processing. The first stage is the coarse detection processing screening out the range units having possible moving targets. The second stage is called the refined processing, which uses FRFT or FRAF for coherent integration dealing with high-order motions, i.e., accelerated or jerk motion. And the second stage is carried out only within the rangebins after the first stage. Therefore, the amount of calculation can be greatly reduced while ensuring high detection performance. Finally, real radar data are used for verification of the proposed method, which shows better performance than the traditional MTD method with higher integration gain.