Weak Moving Target Detection Based on Multi-Frame Coherent Integration Algorithm

The long-time coherent integration algorithm is an effective way to improve the detection performance of weak target. However, due to the limited pulses of radar echoes in a single frame, the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) accumulated by the inter-frame integration method cannot satisfy the detection requirements. To solve this issue, a multi-frame coherent integration (including intra-frame and inter-frame integration) method is proposed. This algorithm has two stages. Firstly, the inter-frame range walk is corrected by the frequency domain correction method. After range correction, a phase compensation method is proposed to settle the phase discontinuity between adjacent frames. Secondly, the SNR of the target can be improved significantly by the multi-frame coherent integration method. The experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms the multi-frame noncoherent integration method and multi-frame moving target detection method.