Low speed target detection with short CIT in HF surface wave radar

Abstract

High frequency surface wave radar can detect targets beyond the horizon. It needs long coherent integration time (CIT) to detect low speed targets, such as ships, in the environment with sea clutter. In order to improve the efficiency of the radar system, and avoid the Doppler broadening caused by long CIT, it is necessary to shorten coherent integration time. Modern spectrum estimation technique is adopted to extract Doppler information from HF radar echo signals. It can provide high resolution to realize ship detection in short CIT. The real data processing and analysis show that the autoregressive spectrum estimation technology is effective to detect low speed target in short CIT in high frequency surface wave radar.