GMTI tracking in the presence of Doppler and range ambiguities

This study focuses on tracking targets by airborne ground moving target indication (GMTI) radar in a medium pulse repetition frequency (MPRF) mode, in which both Doppler as well as range ambiguities occur. The standard radar operation is to resolve these ambiguities at the signal processing level by using several PRF. This approach, however, consumes radar energy because multiple bursts are emitted. In this paper, we consider the resolution of the ambiguities at the tracking level based on the assumption that the radar system is operating at a single PRF only. Thus, a significant reduction in power consumption is obtained which is crucial for multifunction radar systems. In this work, a Bayesian tracking algorithm is presented which is capable of handling the ambiguities and the related multiple blind zones, the latter being the major challenge for tracking ground moving targets. The performance of the developed algorithm is evaluated based on simulated single target scenarios.