Doppler ambiguity resolution using staggered PRF with a new chirp sweep-rate estimation algorithm

The use of a quadratic staggered pulse-repetition-frequency (PRF) law in a surveillance radar, transposes unambiguous Doppler frequency estimation to a chirp sweep-rate estimation problem. An algorithm is proposed which achieves this estimation task efficiently. The method relies on a nonlinear recurrent equation which permits the construction of a pseudo forward-backward prediction matrix. The sweep rate is then estimated using the classical minimum-norm method and the new Doppler ambiguity domain is fixed by a sampling parameter. Performances are finally derived by computer simulations