Abstract: Based on the study of the time-varying autoregressive model (TVAR) and instantaneous frequency estimation of non-stationary signals, a TVAR model based radar targets detection in the formation is proposed, which takes the advantage of the TVAR model for the accurate description of a non-stationary signal and fuses the precise estimation of instantaneous frequency of the echoes and the resolution in range of targets in the formation, and hence the targets detection in both range and Doppler frequency dimensions. Experimental results on some actual echoes data illustrate the effectiveness of the method, and a reliable detection of a four-target formation is achieved with a series of 64 echoes.

Key words: radar targets detection, time-varying autoregressive model, frequency estimation, time-frequency analysis