Aspects of Radar Range Super-Resolution

Range resolution is generally limited by the bandwidth of the transmitted radar waveform. In this paper, the issue of range super-resolution based on the returns from a single pulse is addressed. Aspects of super-resolution are investigated for the adaptive pulse compression algorithm and least-squares estimation relative to the nominal resolution provided by the standard matched filter. Performance is ascertained for both continuous and discrete waveforms of commensurate nominal resolution via simulation. Diagonal loading of both super-resolution approaches is discussed as a means to provide robustness to moderate matrix ill-conditioning that can occur when waveforms are over-sampled.