HighlightsWhat are the main findings?This paper presents a high-order phase compensation and parameter estimation algorithm designed for maneuvering targets, which effectively balances detection performance and computational efficiency.The proposed method achieves precise compensation of high-order range migrations without the need for exhaustive parameter search, thereby circumventing the blind speed sidelobe effect. Futhermore, the incorporation of a time-delay variable significantly improves the anti-noise capability of the approach.What is the implication of the main finding?This algorithm introduces a novel motion compensation technique to address the challenges of range migration, Doppler frequency migration, and Doppler ambiguity in detecting weak maneuvering targets. It achieves precise range migration compensation with enhanced accuracy and robustness, forming a vital preprocessing step for high-quality SAR imaging.The algorithm supports simultaneous multi-target processing and holds promising application potential in fields such as airborne radar detection, maritime moving target indication, cooperative observation by UAV formations, and other fields.This study focuses on the key challenges in detecting and estimating motion parameters of ground maneuvering targets for airborne radar sensors. The complex unknown motion states of the ground maneuvering target, including velocity, acceleration, and jerk, result in range migrations (RMs) and Doppler frequency migrations (DFMs). These effects severely degrade the long-time coherent accumulation performance of the airborne radar, thereby limiting the reliable detection and precise parameter estimation of maneuvering targets. To address this issue, a new detection and motion parameter estimation method based on the range frequency reversal transform (RFRT) and searching Lv’s distribution (SLVD), i.e., RFRT-SLVD, is proposed. Specifically, the third-order RM (TRM) and quadratic DFM (QDFM) are considered. The proposed method operates as follows: First, RMs are eliminated simultaneously via the RFRT operation, which multiplies the echo by its reversed data in the range frequency and slow-time domains, leveraging the symmetric equal-interval sampling property of the range frequency. Subsequently, a phase compensation function (PCF) related to the jerk is constructed to compensate the QDFM. Finally, the LVD is performed to remove residual DFMs and achieve effective signal energy accumulation. Additionally, the case of a fast-moving target with Doppler ambiguity is analyzed, and a method for estimating three motion parameters is provided. A key advantage of the proposed technique is its ability to directly compensate the RMs without requiring prior knowledge of the maneuvering target, while also avoiding the blind speed sidelobe (BSSL) effect. In comparison with existing algorithms, RFRT-SLVD achieves a balanced trade-off between parameter estimation performance and computational efficiency. Numerical analyses and experiments are conducted to validate the method, assessing its detection capability for ground maneuvering targets, Doppler ambiguity resolution in parameter estimation, computational complexity, and method applicability in multi-target scenarios.
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