A Novel Radar Detection Method for Sensing Tiny and Maneuvering Insect Migrants

Abstract

The use of radar to monitor insect migration is of great significance for pest control and biological migration mechanism research. However, migrating insects usually have small radar-cross-section (RCS) and are accompanied by maneuvering. The current radar detection algorithms mainly have contradictions in detection performance and computational complexity. So it is difficult for traditional radar detection algorithms to detect them effectively. Hence, a novel coherent integration detection algorithm based on dynamic programming (DP) and fractional Fourier transforming (FrFT) is proposed. By combining the advantages of DP and FrFT, the proposed DP-FrFT method can quickly search the target track, and simultaneously perform parameters estimation and motion compensation, achieving high integration gain with relatively low time consumption. The high efficiency of the method is verified with a large number of simulations and sufficient field experiments.