Weak radar signal detection based on wavelet transform

Weak signal detection is a basic and important problem in radar systems. The detectable range of a radar is determined by the radar equation. This equation shows that the performance of a radar is improved by increasing the receiver output SNR. For the purpose of improving the SNR, the process called “integration of pulses” has been used. We propose new methods based on the wavelet transform for the improvement of the SNR. The wavelet transform is a tool for time-frequency domain signal analysis and is sensitive to the transient signals. By computer simulations, we show that the receiver output SNR after the wavelet transform is applied becomes about 8 dB greater than that of the original signals. This value corresponds to a 60 percent improvement of the radar detectable range