High resolution time-frequency distributions for maneuvering target detection in over-the-horizon radars

A novel high-resolution time-frequency representation method is proposed for source detection and classification in over-the-horizon radar (OTHR) systems. A data-dependent kernel is applied in the ambiguity domain to capture the target signal components, which are then resolved using the root-MUSIC based coherent spectrum estimation. This method is particularly effective to analyze a multi-component signal with time-varying time-Doppler signatures. By using the different time-Doppler signatures embedded in the multipath signals, this proposed method can reveal important target maneuvering information, whereas other linear and bilinear time-frequency representation methods fail.