Medium PRF set selection using evolutionary algorithms

This paper presents a new and novel method of selecting multiple pulse repetition frequency (PRF) sets for use in medium PRF pulsed-Doppler radars. Evolutionary algorithms are used to minimise the blind areas in the range/Doppler space. The evolutionary algorithm allows optimal solutions to be generated quickly, far faster than with exhaustive searches, and is fully automatic, unlike existing techniques. The evolved solutions compare very favorably against the results of both an exhaustive search and existing published PRF set selection methods. This evolutionary approach to generation of PRF sets is a major advance in medium PRF radar design.     

Medium PRF Performance Analysis

A discussion of various types of x-band airborne radars is presented together with their systematic development through the years to the present time. Starting with simple, low pulse-repetition frequency (PRF) radars for measuring radar-target range, airborne radar development proceeded with more sophisticated high PRF Doppler radars where radar-target range and range rate were measured simultaneously. The use of Doppler (frequency) in signal processing allowed the separation of moving from nonmoving targets (ground), enabling the detection of moving targets in the presence of ground clutter. More recent developments in waveform generation and selection has resulted in the development of medium PRF radars, whereby a greater degree of tactical flexibility in target detection is achieved by combining the desirable features of both low and high PRF radars. Part of the available literature gives an overview, together with a specific example of the design and performance of an airborne medium PRF radar. Here, however, the systematic evolution of these radars is emphasized and the necessary theoretical background is developed for their performance calculations. Modern day airborne radars may be equipped with all three modes of operation, low, medium, and high PRF, allowing the operator to utilize the mode best suited for the tactical encounter. Low PRF and high PRF radars have been described elsewhere and are given here primarily for the sake of completeness and for the necessary background for developing medium PRF radar equations. They are also needed for developing the reasons why medium PRF radars came into being.     

Doppler ambiguity resolution using multiple PRF

An algorithm for velocity ambiguity resolution in coherent pulsed Doppler radar using multiple pulse repetition frequencies (PRF) is presented. It relies on the choice of particular values for the PRFs. The folded frequency of the target signal is obtained by averaging the folded frequency estimates for each PRF, and a quasi maximum likelihood criterion is maximized for ambiguity order estimation. The fast implementation of this nonambiguous estimation procedure is based on the fast Fourier transform (FFT), The proposed waveform allows full exploitation of any (even) number of PRFs, which appears to be important for estimation improvement. The effects of the waveform parameters and the folded frequency estimation variance on the performance of the ambiguity order estimation procedure are evaluated theoretically and through computer simulations. Mean square error (MSE) curves are given to assess the Doppler frequency estimation accuracy. Finally, the new method is compared with a classical technique and the implementation of the algorithm in a clutter environment is addressed.     

Performance comparison of PRF schedules for medium PRF radar

Previous work has shown how evolutionary algorithms (EAs) are an effective tool in optimising the selection of pulse repetition frequency (PRF) values of medium PRF schedules in an airborne fire control radar (FCR) application requiring target data in three PRFs. The optimisation is driven by the requirement to minimise range/Doppler blindness whilst maintaining full decodability. In this paper we detail work in which the optimisation process is applied to design novel short medium PRF schedules requiring target data in just two PRFs. The paper reports on the testing of a variety of near-optimum schedules to compare their blindness, decoding, and ghosting performances. The results show that in many situations, the 2 of N schedules are a practical alternative to conventional 3 of N processing.     

弹载合成孔径雷达自适应重频分析与设计

弹载合成孔径雷达(Synthetic Aperture Radar,SAR)的目标距离、视线角由于高速逼近目标而快速变化,这导致传统的固定脉冲重复频率(Pulse Repetition Frequency,PRF)(简称重频)波形难以兼顾弹载SAR雷达在成像各方面的约束条件,故需要根据当前弹体运动和弹目关系变化情况实时计算重频。详细分析了影响重频选择的各项因素,包括避免距离模糊、方位模糊、高度杂波、发射遮挡影响及SAR成像分辨率、系统相参性要求等影响因素,并设计了自适应重频计算的工作流程。某SAR雷达系统实验表明,该设计能够在实际飞行弹道条件下根据实际弹目关系自适应调整脉冲重复频率,从而更好地实现SAR雷达系统的工作性能,有效解决了固定重频波形不能适应弹载SAR工作条件的难题。     

Properties of Staggered PRF Radar Spectral Components

Expressions for moving target indicator (MTI) improvement factor limitation due to pulse repetition frequency (PRF) staggering and loss of target detectability for various values of Doppler frequency in the passband are presented. It is also shown that the product of variance of stagger periods and clutter variance is an important parameter determining the performance of a staggered PRF MTI radar.     

Mitigating Range Ambiguity in High PRF Radar using Inter-Pulse Binary Coding

The paper proposes a way to increase the energy within a coherent processing interval (CPI) using more pulses instead of longer pulses. Long coded pulses result in masking targets at close range and poor Doppler tolerance. Increasing the number of pulses implies high pulse repetition frequency (PRF), which suffers from range ambiguity and target folding. These drawbacks of a high PRF can be mitigated by inter-pulse coding. The approach suggested here should be attractive for close and mid range applications of radar, ground penetrating radar, ultrasound imaging, and more.     

中等PRF机载PD雷达频域恒虚警处理性能计算

 一、引言 在中等脉冲重复频率（PRF）工作时,MTI-FFT-CFAR是PD或MTD雷达信号处理器的一种典型结构。Lawrence和Moore对MTD雷达在地杂波和气象杂波背景中的检测性能的计算中,假设了邻近距离单元中的杂波样本是独立同分布的（iid）。而在MTI-FFT-频域单元平均CFAR处理器中,频域单元的杂波样本明显偏离iid假设。门     

Clutter Spectra of Low PRF AMTI Pulse-Doppler Radar

Approximate expressions are derived for the video clutter spectra in the receiver of a low pulse repetition frequency (PRF), airborne moving target indicator (AMTI), pulse-Doppler radar for both step-scanning and continuous-scanning antennas. The receiver is assumed to process the received waveform with a clutter-tracking oscillator and a window function is employed to obtain short-term spectra. Except for the broadening effects of the window function, it is shown that the clutter spectrum can be simply related to the antenna voltage-gain pattern. It is further shown, in the scanning antenna case, that the combined spectral broadening due to platform motion and antenna scanning cannot be assumed to be the result of the convolution of the separate effects unless the antenna gain pattern has a Gaussian shape. The approximate clutter expressions are illustrated by examples and are shown to agree well with the results of computer calculations.     

Some Results on Pulse-Burst Radar Design

Pulse-burst radar attempts to capitalize on the advantages of both low and high PRF radar while minimizing their disadvantages. Optimization procedures are applied to the choice of transmitter signal and receiver weighting. The results are compared to the use of Tschebyscheff transmitter weighting with an optimized receiver. The effects of various design and operational parameters are indicated. The performance of pulse-burst radar is qualitatively compared to that of conventional low and high PRF Doppler radar. It is concluded that pulse-burst radar offers the possibility of achieving a solution to the MTI problem under operational conditions where conventional Doppler radars fail.     

Reduced-rank STAP for high PRF radar

Due to the range ambiguity of high pulse-repetition frequency (HPRF) radars, echoes from far-range fold over near-range returns. This effect may cause low Doppler targets to compete with near-range strong clutter. Another consequence of the range ambiguity is that the sample support for estimating the array covariance matrix is reduced, leading to degraded performance. It is shown that space-time adaptive processing (STAP) techniques are required to reject the clutter in HPRF radar. Four STAP methods are studied in the context of the HPRF radar problem: low rank approximation sample matrix inversion (SMI), diagonally loaded SMI, eigencanceler, and element-space post-Doppler. These three methods are evaluated in typical HPRF radar scenarios and for various training conditions, including when the target is present in the training data     

结合视线方向运动补偿的滑动聚束SAR子孔径成像算法

滑动聚束合成孔径雷达(SAR)是一种新兴的成像模式,既可以提高方位向分辨率又能够扩展成像范围。其数据处理时需要考虑两个关键问题:一是系统脉冲重复频率(PRF)不足,方位向信号发生混叠;二是合成孔径长度的增加使运动误差的影响更为突出,运动补偿(MOCO)精度要求提高。基于子孔径技术,提出了一种改进的高分辨率成像算法。划分子孔径克服了PRF不足的问题;子孔径数据处理采用结合视线(LOS)方向运动补偿的Omega-K算法,实现更高精度的运动补偿,提高了聚焦质量。最终的方位向分辨率达到0.1 m,具有实际工程应用价值。点目标仿真和实测数据处理验证了算法的有效性。     

Constrained Improvement MTI Radar Processors

A new class of staggered PRF MTI radar processors is developed in this paper. These processors are constrained to achieve a specified value of MTI improvement and, subject to this constraint, minimize variations in processor response as a function of target Doppler frequency. The selection of both filter weights and PRF stagger sequences is discussed and a number of representative designs are presented.     

STAP with medium PRF mode for non-side-looking airborne radar

Space-time adaptive processing (STAP) has been widely discussed for airborne radar systems to improve the system performance of detecting targets. This is especially true for airborne early warning (AEW) radar, which should find long-range and small radar cross section (RCS) targets such as the stealth aircraft and missiles. However, in existing airborne radar literature, STAP is mainly considered for clutter and jamming rejection in side-looking airborne radar (SLAR) applications. There have been fewer discussions on airborne radar with non-side-ways looking array radar (non-SLAR). The STAP of non-SLAR such as forward looking array radar is also very important and can not be avoided for airborne radar to detect targets in all directions. The STAP of the non-SLAR is studied here. A scheme has been proposed, which is processed by the way of STAP combined with multiple staggered medium pulse repetition frequencies (PRFs). We further study the selection of PRFs in order to make the scheme more available for non-SLAR radar. We analyze two typical non-SLAR cases, i.e., inclined-sideways looking array and forward looking array. We examine this scheme by comparing the performances of three processing systems under the criteria of range-velocity blind zone minimization. Computer simulation results show the multiple-PRFs STAP scheme is feasible for non-SLAR and can be applied to phased-array AEW radar systems     

高信噪比、高分辨宽测绘带成像

针对传统高分辨和宽测绘带以及高信噪比和宽测绘带之间的矛盾,提出一种基于脉内扫描面阵合成孔径雷达(SAR)系统的二维空域联合处理算法实现高信噪比、高分辨宽测绘带成像。文中首先建立脉内扫描面阵SAR系统模型,该系统采用低脉冲重复频率(PRF)获得宽测绘带信息,同时利用脉内扫描方式获得高信噪比的回波信号。对于低PRF采样宽多普勒谱(对应方位高分辨)引起的多普勒模糊以及脉内扫描引起的距离模糊,提出一种二维空域联合处理算法解距离和多普勒模糊,并且详细地分析了地形高度变化对解模糊算法的影响。最后,通过仿真实验验证了本文算法的有效性。     

Signal-to-Noise Ratio Calculations in Pulse and Pulse Doppler Radars

In low pulse-repetition frequency (PRF) pulse radars, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is usually calculated on a per pulse basis and this value is then multiplied by the number of pulses integrated to obtain the SNR for a given duration of target illumination. In high PRF pulse Doppler radars, SNR is usually calculated by using the centerline power of the transmitted signal spectrum as the target return power because the centerline is kept in the receiver and returns of the PRF lines are notched out [1]. We show here that both methods of SNR calculations are entirely equivalent for matched transmit-receive radar systems.     

Characterizing radar emissions using a robust countermeasurereceiver

The author presents a high-sensitivity signal processing approach for detecting and estimating the angle of arrival (AOA), frequency and pulse repetition frequency (PRF) of multiple radar emitters using broadband interferometers. Two time series are generated using information embedded in the sampled cross correlation of the signals obtained from three antenna elements (i.e. two base legs). The phase and amplitude of a complex Fourier transform of these two time series with respect to the sampling clock are used to estimate the AOA and PRF of pulsed emitters     

A Systematic Approach to Blind-Speed Elimination

In radars that achieve a high subclutter visibility by coherent processing over several pulses, a serious problem appears in the form of blind Dopplers, or ?speeds,? at which target detection is impossible. Of the possible methods of eliminating these blind speeds, the most basic one that is employed when the performance requirements are high involves the use of several PRF's. These PRF's are chosen so that coverage is obtained at any Doppler with at least one PRF. The problem faced by the radar designer is to select the set of PRF's and the pulse numbers for each PRF so that the search frame time is minimized. This paper evolves a systematic method for the design of the blind-speed elimination scheme. A formalized approach is offered that shows the possible combinations of wavelength, PRF, and pulse number and the tradeoffs involved, without introducing the confusion ordinarily associated with multiparameter choices.     

A Generalized Clutter Computation Procedure for Airborne Pulse Doppler Radars

A general procedure for analyzing ground clutter effects in airborne pulse Doppler radars is described. The quantity computed is the expected clutter power at the output of any specified range gate/ Doppler filter processing cell. The procedure has been computerized and is quite general with respect to antenna gain pattern, clutter cross section variation, PRF, pulse and range gate shapes, and the various receiver processing functions. It is applicable only to distributed ground clutter and linear processing, and excludes the dynamic effects of continuous antenna scanning. To exemplify the use of the procedure, two studies conducted for a postulated high PRF radar are described, and the results are presented.