Ground Moving Target Detection and Estimation for Airborne Multichannel Radar Based on Coherent Difference Processing

Abstract

Ground moving targets with slow velocity and low radar cross-section (RCS) are usually embedded in the clutter Doppler spectrum. To achieve the detection and estimation of such targets, a novel method operating in the range-Doppler domain is developed for airborne multichannel radar systems. The interferometric phases that are sensitive to moving targets are obtained by coherent difference processing (CDP) for target detection. Moreover, the amplitude is utilized as complementary information to improve the detection performance. Then, a matched filter bank is designed and applied to the CDP processed data to complete the parameter estimation. The proposed method provides the benefits of high efficiency and robustness, since it does not involve matrix inversion, and it does not require homogeneous clutter assumption unlike adaptive algorithms. Experiments on real data acquired by an airborne X-band four-channel radar system demonstrate its effectiveness.