Coherent track-before-detect with micro-Doppler signature estimation in array radars

In this work, the authors consider joint micro‐Doppler signature estimation and track‐before‐detect for detecting and classifying manoeuvring and small rotary‐wing aircraft with a phased array radar receiver. Such aircraft induce low signal‐to‐noise ratio reflections which complicates their detection. These difficulties are exacerbated by the high manoeuvrability of such aircraft which results with resolution cell migrations in conventional detectors. The authors propose a novel track‐before‐detect algorithm which jointly estimates the micro‐Doppler signature, dominant reflectivity and kinematic trajectory of an object before the decision on its existence is made. These quantities are used in a Neyman‐Pearson test against a constant false alarm rate threshold which is equivalent to evaluating a coherent long time integration value. The authors demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed scheme in a real data experiment and compare it with conventional techniques.