Structure-based joint estimation algorithm for distributed coherent aperture radar

• Main Author: Yin Liu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2020-11-01
• Series: The Journal of Engineering
• Subjects: filtering theory; radar detection; radar imaging; synthetic aperture radar; matched filters; radar resolution; delays; parameter estimation; radar signal processing; echo; estimation performance; coherence parameter estimation; equal time delay differences; transmitter–receiver pair; matched filtered signals; coherent processing; received echoes; phase differences; distributed coherent aperture radar; structure-based joint estimation algorithm
• Online Access: https://digital-library.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/joe.2019.0907

In a distributed coherent aperture radar, the time delay differences and the phase differences among received echoes from each pair of transmitter–receiver should be estimated and then can be compensated to realise coherent processing. Most of the existing algorithms improve the outputs of the matched filtered signals of each transmitter–receiver pair separately. In this study, a structure of equal time delay differences existing in the signal model can be exploited to jointly perform coherence parameter estimation. With this idea, a structure-based joint estimation algorithm is presented to enhance the performance of the coherence parameter estimation. Simulation results verify that this algorithm can have better estimation performance compared with some existing algorithms in the case of low signal-to-noise ratios. Especially, its performance advantage is more significant in the multiple nearfield target scenarios.