Extraction and analysis of micro-Doppler signatures by the Empirical Mode Decomposition

A set of experimental trials was conducted with a 10 GHz continuous wave radar to collect micro-Doppler signatures of a large single, double and triple bladed rotating fin and a sized miniature helicopter. We analysed the target micro-Doppler signatures and decomposed them using the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) method in order to extract a series of Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs) which admit only an instantaneous frequency. The aim of this paper is to investigate what information is available in the target IMFs to help identify key features that can be used for improving target classification and identification. The experimental testing was complimented with a set of simulations to assist in the understanding of the results.