A simple maneuver indicator from target’s range-doppler image

Tracking maneuvering targets presents a great challenge to airborne surveillance radar signal processing and sensor systems management systems. Smears caused by an uncompensated maneuver (either translational or rotational) affect target identification (ID) with distorted target images. An unexpected maneuver introduces large position estimation errors to a tracker and in the worst case loss of track. On the other hand, a sensor manager relies upon an expected performance of a tracker to schedule its resources so as to maintain target ID/tracker performance. To aid a sensor management cost function, we present a simple target maneuver indicator (TMI) specifically for the operational condition of target maneuverability. It relates the slope of a target´s range-Doppler image to the underlying turn rate, if the target undergoes a maneuver. As an intermediate product of the range profile formation process, this approach provides an easy and quick indication of target maneuverability and, under favorable conditions, an estimate of such a maneuver (e.g., the turn rate), which can be incorporated into the tracking algorithm of the tracker.