Method for Coherent Compensation of Side Lobes of the Spectrum of Interfering Reflections in the Problem of Detecting Low-Speed and Inconspicuous Objects

Abstract

The detection of low-speed objects is a challenging task. The small radar cross-section of low-speed objects varying from one-thousandths to one-tens of a square meter practically excludes a successful detection of such objects against intense clutter from static objects by existing methods. In this work we present a method of coherent compensation of clutter from static objects in the sidelobes of the spectrum. The method provides successful detection of low-speed and low-visibility objects with reflective characteristics that create signals with power comparable to the power of spectral sidelobes of the clutter. The method is based on the representation of the side lobes of the spectrum of interfering reflections not in the form of noise, which determines the limiting level of “background whitening”, but in the form of a coherent spectral structure, amenable to further compensation. The proposed method must be especially effective in complicated situations such as when detecting signals reflected from low-speed and low-visibility objects (e.g., quadcopters) versus intensive clutter reflections from metal structures and buildings.