Velocity measurement and radar imaging of high-speed target by using stepped-chirp signal

Abstract Stepped-chirp signal (SCS) is widely used by wideband high-resolution radars; however, its bandwidth synthesizing suffers from motion-induced phase errors resulting from the radial velocity of the target, especially for high-speed targets. So motion compensation is very crucial in signal processing for this kind of radar using SCS. Based on the cross-correlation inner frame method for velocity measurement of a single-scattering-center target, the multiple cross-correlation method (MCCM) is proposed for measuring the velocity of a complex target with multiple scattering centers (MSC), which is called SCS-MCCM. By this algorithm, not only the radial velocity, but also the real velocity of a target can be measured under the assumption that it is straight moving. After obtaining the velocity, motion compensation is conducted so as to realize high-resolution imaging. Theoretical analysis and simulations show that the proposed method is feasible and effective for an MSC target.