Stretch processing for masking effect removal in noise radar

A method of removing the masking effect caused by strong target echoes in a noise radar is presented. Signal processing in noise radar is based on the calculation of the correlation between transmitted and received signals. Strong echoes of nearby targets produce relatively high sidelobes in the correlation function, thus masking weak echoes of far targets. The classical method of masking effect removal, taking into consideration only the Doppler shift of target echoes, does not remove the strong target echo completely when targets migrate between range resolution cells in the integration time. The method proposed, based on signal stretch processing and a point target model, shows an improvement over existing methods and allows for the detection of weak targets also in the presence of the fast and strong ones.