Velocity measurement of radar targets using HOS

The application of higher-order statistics (HOS) to velocity measurements of radar targets takes advantage of the HOS characteristic that fourth-order estimators can be unbiased by Gaussian noise. Using data from a stepped-frequency, coherent radar, the samples are coherently averaged in the trispectrum or in slices of the trispectrum. The ratio of the averages produces a transfer function where phase is related to velocity. The HOS method is compared to a classical, second order method similar to cross-spectrum analysis. An example using real radar data shows a case where the classical method does not work.