Micro-Doppler extraction from ballistic missile radar returns using time-frequency analysis

The spinning motion of a ballistic missile (BM) induces periodic frequency modulations on the returned radar signal. This micro-Doppler modulation frequency is a stable and unique parameter in radar target recognition. This paper first establishes the radar signal model of the spinning missile during flight, and then extracts the micro-Doppler modulation frequency through analysis of the periodic structure of the resulting spectrogram (short time Fourier Transform (STFT)) - i.e., the time-frequency distribution (TFD). In order to be used for BM target recognition we implemented a data-dependent optimal window length for the STFT. We treated the resultant TFD as an image and then used the 2-D DFT/FFT for feature extraction. Experimental results illustrate the validity of the proposed method.