Frequency agility radar with overlapping pulses and sparse reconstruction

Abstract

The use of frequency agility has a proven track record in radar systems. Altering the radar carrier frequency over shorter intervals improves the detection capabilities for slowly fluctuating targets and increases jamming resistance. This article exploits the frequency diversity concept further and proposes a transmission structure for emission of pulses overlapping in time. This is combined with the relative more modern framework of compressed sensing and sparse reconstruction for coherent regeneration of signals. Through detailed simulations the performance of such a setup is evaluated. It is shown that the overall system performance can be improved and definitive estimates for target velocities can be obtained even with a sizable reduction in integration time.