J4 ›› 2014, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (5): 207-212.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1001-2400.2014.05.035

• Original Articles • Previous Articles    

Tracking-before-detection method based on range extension for HPRF radars

ZHANG Peng;ZHANG Linrang;HU Zijun   

  1. (National Key Lab. of Radar Signal Processing, Xidian Univ., Xi'an  710071, China)
  • Received:2014-04-10 Online:2014-10-20 Published:2014-11-27
  • Contact: ZHANG Peng E-mail:zhphsearch@163.com

Abstract:

Aiming at the issue of range ambiguity, a novel tracking-before-detection (TBD) method based on range extension is proposed for dim target detection with high pulse repetition frequency (HPRF) radars. The proposed method functioning in a staggering multiple pulse repetition frequencies (PRFs) mode preprocesses the MTD-processed data and performs range-extension according to different range ambiguous numbers. The maximum energy of targets is then acquired through the accumulation of energy inside the group of multiple PRFs and of tracking energy between groups. Finally, the track diffusion effect incurred by the dynamic programming algorithm is eliminated using the tracking cohesion strategy, and the tracking of fake targets caused by a low signal to noise ratio is reduced according to the correlation between fake and real targets. The new method improves the detection performance of the dim target without a priori knowledge of the state of the target. Simulation illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Key words: high pulse repetition frequency, range extension, range ambiguity, state estimation, dynamic programming, tracking-before-detecttion