Maneuvering Target Detection Based on Three-Dimensional Coherent Integration

Due to the target motion, range cell migration (RCM) and Doppler frequency migration (DFM) always occur. That is harmful to the signal enhancement and detection. In order to solve the problem, a novel three-dimensional (3-D) coherent integration (TDCI) based algorithm is proposed in this article which consists of three stages. Firstly, a 3-D space is generated by the autocorrelation function. After that, TDCI algorithm is realized and TDCI domain is obtained in which the motion parameters can be accurately estimated. Finally, compensating off the RCM and DFM by the estimates, the target signal can be accumulated and detected in range-Doppler frequency domain. Theoretical analyses and simulation experiments are given to demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is able to deal with the problems of velocity ambiguity, shadow effect, and cross-term with superior resolution. Comparisons with several representative algorithms lead us to the conclusion that the proposed algorithm can strike a good balance between computation cost and anti-noise performance. In the end, real measured data processing and result analysis are carried out, which further verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.