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A method for discriminating and tracking a target in a clutter cloud includes transmitting a radar signal at a signal bandwidth to: identify a range extent of a clutter cloud; determine a centroid and a velocity growth rate of the clutter cloud; and identify a direction of movement of the centroid o

A method for discriminating and tracking a target in a clutter cloud includes transmitting a radar signal at a signal bandwidth to: identify a range extent of a clutter cloud; determine a centroid and a velocity growth rate of the clutter cloud; and identify a direction of movement of the centroid of the clutter cloud. The method may also include locking a another radar signal having a greater signal bandwidth onto the centroid of the clutter cloud whereby the centroid is tracked within one radar range resolution bin; providing a delay line that includes at least two Doppler filters and is configured to cover a Doppler frequency range corresponding to a velocity growth rate of the clutter cloud; and processing a reflected radar signal corresponding to the greater signal bandwidth. The processing of the reflected radar signal may comprise passing the reflected radar signal through the delay line to mitigate a portion of the reflected signal that is reflected by the clutter cloud. A system and apparatus for performing the method is also provided.

대표청구항 ▼

1. A method for discriminating and tracking a target in a clutter cloud, comprising:transmitting a first radar signal at a first signal bandwidth for searching and locating a clutter cloud;transmitting a second radar signal at a second signal bandwidth to:identify a range extent of a clutter cloud;d

1. A method for discriminating and tracking a target in a clutter cloud, comprising:transmitting a first radar signal at a first signal bandwidth for searching and locating a clutter cloud;transmitting a second radar signal at a second signal bandwidth to:identify a range extent of a clutter cloud;determine a centroid and a velocity growth rate of the clutter cloud; andidentify a direction of movement of the centroid of the clutter cloud;locking a third radar signal having a third signal bandwidth onto the centroid of the clutter cloud whereby the centroid is tracked within one radar range resolution bin;providing a delay line comprising at least two Doppler filters, the delay line being configured to cover a Doppler frequency range corresponding to a velocity growth rate of the clutter cloud; andprocessing a reflected radar signal corresponding to the third signal bandwidth, the processing of the reflected radar signal comprising passing the reflected radar signal through the delay line to mitigate a portion of the reflected signal that is reflected by the clutter cloud. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein:determining a centroid is carried out by determining a peak range bin of a reflected signal corresponding to the second signal bandwidth; anddetermining a range extent and a velocity growth rate and identifying a direction of movement of the centroid are carried out using Kalman filtering. 3. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the reflected radar signal includes providing a sliding window coherent integration routine. 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least two Doppler filters comprise a plurality of moving target indicator (MTI) filters. 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the MTI filters comprise n-tap MTI filters, where n is in the range of from 2 to 5. 6. The method of claim 4, wherein the delay line is configured to delay each of the MTI filters by the pulse repetition frequency of the transmitted third radar signal. 7. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the reflected radar signal includes taking the fast Fourier transform of the reflected radar signal. 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first signal bandwidth is narrower than the second signal bandwidth and the third signal bandwidth is narrower than the second signal bandwidth. 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first signal bandwidth comprises a narrow bandwidth, the second signal bandwidth comprises a medium bandwidth, and the third signal bandwidth comprises a wide bandwidth. 10. The method of claim 1 wherein transmitting the first radar signal includes transmitting at a first pulse repetition frequency (PRF) and wherein identifying a direction of movement of the centroid of the clutter cloud is carried out at a second PRF that is less than the first PRF. 11. A radar system for tracking a target in a cloud of clutter, comprising:a transmitter configured to selectively transmit a radar signal at a first radar bandwidth, at a second radar bandwidth, and at a third radar bandwidth;a receiver configured to receive a first reflected radar signal at the first radar bandwidth, a second reflected radar signal at the second radar bandwidth, and a third reflected signal at a third radar bandwidth;at least one processor interconnected with the receiver and the transmitter and being configured to:locate a clutter cloud and target based on the first reflected radar signal;actuate the transmitter in order to lock the second radar signal at the second radar bandwidth onto the clutter cloud;identify a range extent of the-clutter cloud and to calculate a centroid, a velocity growth rate and a direction of movement of the centroid of the clutter cloud based on the second reflected radar signal;actuate the transmitter in order to lock the third radar signal at the third radar bandwidth onto the centroid of the clutter cloud;provide a delay line comprising at least two Doppler filters, the delay line being configured to cover a Doppler frequency range correspo nding to a velocity growth rate of the clutter cloud; andprocess the third reflected radar signal corresponding to the third radar bandwidth by passing the reflected radar signal through the delay line to mitigate a portion of the third reflected radar signal that is reflected by the clutter cloud. 12. The device of claim 11, wherein the delay line comprises (N) time delay circuits interspersed between (N) Doppler filters and wherein a time delay of each of the time delay circuits is (1/N) of the pulse repetition frequency period. 13. The device of claim 11, wherein the at least one Doppler filter comprises at least one n-tap tap moving target indicator (MTI) filter where n is in the range of from 2 to 5. 14. The device of claim 12, wherein N=8 and wherein each of the Doppler filters comprises a five tap moving target indicator (MTI) filter. 15. The device of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to perform a fast Fourier transform of the reflected radar signal. 16. The device of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to perform a sliding window coherent integration routine on the reflected radar signal. 17. The device of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to include a zero velocity filter. 18. A method for discriminating and tracking a target in a clutter cloud, comprising:transmitting a radar signal at a signal bandwidth to:identify a range extent of a clutter cloud;determine a centroid and a velocity growth rate of the clutter cloud; andidentify a direction of movement of the centroid of the clutter cloud;locking a another radar signal having a greater signal bandwidth onto the centroid of the clutter cloud whereby the centroid is tracked within one radar range resolution bin;providing a delay line comprising at least two Doppler filters, the delay line being configured to cover a Doppler frequency range corresponding to a velocity growth rate of the clutter cloud; andprocessing a reflected radar signal corresponding to the greater signal bandwidth, the processing of the reflected radar signal comprising passing the reflected radar signal through the delay line to mitigate a portion of the reflected signal that is reflected by the clutter cloud. 19. The method of claim 18, wherein:determining a centroid is carried out by determining a peak range bin of a reflected signal corresponding to the lesser signal bandwidth; anddetermining a range extent and a velocity growth rate and identifying a direction of movement of the centroid are carried out using Kalman filtering. 20. The method of claim 18, wherein processing the reflected radar signal includes providing a sliding window coherent integration routine. 21. The method of claim 18, wherein the at least two Doppler filters comprises a plurality of moving target indicator (MTI) filters. 22. The method of claim 21, wherein the MTI filters comprise n-tap MTI filters where n is in the range of from 2 to 5. 23. A radar system for tracking a target in a cloud of clutter, comprising:a transmitter configured to selectively transmit a radar signal at a first radar bandwidth and at a second radar bandwidth;a receiver configured to receive a first reflected radar signal at the first radar bandwidth and a second reflected radar signal at the second radar bandwidth;at least one processor interconnected with the receiver and the transmitter and being configured to:identify a range extent of the clutter cloud and to calculate a centroid, a velocity growth rate and a direction of movement of the centroid of the clutter cloud based on the first reflected radar signal;actuate the transmitter in order to lock the second radar signal at the second radar bandwidth onto the centroid of the clutter cloud;provide a delay line comprising at least two Doppler filters, the delay line being configured to cover a Doppler frequency range corresponding to a velocity growth rate of the clutter cloud; andprocess the second reflected radar signal corresponding to the second radar bandwidth by passing the reflected radar signal through the delay line to mitigate a portion of the second reflected signal that is reflected by the clutter cloud. 24. The device of claim 23, wherein the delay line comprises (N) time delay circuits interspersed between (N) Doppler filters and wherein a time delay of each of the time delay circuits is (1/N) of the pulse repetition frequency period. 25. The device of claim 23, wherein the at least one Doppler filter comprises at least one n-tap tap moving target indicator (MTI) filter where n is in the range of from 2 to 5. 26. The device of claim 24, wherein N=8 and wherein each of the Doppler filters comprises a five tap moving target indicator (MTI) filter. 27. The device of claim 23, wherein the processor is further configured to perform a fast Fourier transform of the reflected radar signal. 28. The device of claim 23, wherein the processor is further configured to perform a sliding window coherent integration routine on the reflected radar signal. 29. The device of claim 23, wherein the processor is further configured to include a zero velocity filter.