A Hybrid Integration Method Based on TBD for Maneuvering Target Detection With OTH Radar

It is a common requirement for over-the-horizon radar to detect the air and sea targets in the same direction simultaneously. A long observation time is needed to detect them. However, over the long observation time, the maneuvering weak target such as the aircraft will have a range walk effect, resulting in a significant degradation of its detection and tracking performance. To tackle this problem, a hybrid integration method based on track-before-detect (HI-TBD) for maneuvering target detection is proposed in this article. More specifically, the concepts of virtual frames and virtual subframes, as well as their respective formation methods are introduced. Then, the data received over a long observation time is divided into several virtual frames and virtual subframes. Next, coherent integration within the virtual subframe, coherent integration among virtual subframes, and noncoherent integration among virtual frames are carried out sequentially, where the latter two integrations are performed by the track-before-detect (TBD) algorithm based on dynamic programming. Finally, both the detection result and the trajectory of the maneuvering target are obtained. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed HI-TBD is capable of achieving both high adaptability to target maneuvers and acceptable computational complexity over the long observation periods.