Application of FRFT in the Detection and Parameter Estimation of Accelerating Weak Targets

The Doppler frequency spectrum of radar echo for accelerating weak targets is spread heavily, and the traditional moving target detection method is ineffective. In order to detect the accelerating weak targets and estimate their parameters, a novel radar signal processing method based on fractional Fourier transform for surveillance radar is proposed. It can integrate the energy of chirp signal in the slow time domain of the radar echo, and improve the detection probability of accelerating weak targets in the low signal to noise ratio (SNR) background. The proposed method can also be used to estimate the parameters by the discrete scaling transform. Finally, the effect of different factors such as coherent processing interval, fractional order step and SNR on detection performance and parameter estimation precision of the proposed method are analyzed by theoretical derivation and simulation experiments.