Pulse pair beamforming and the effects of reflectivity field variations on imaging radars

Abstract

A combination of pulse pair processing and beamforming techniques referred as pulse beamforming (PPB) for estimating velocity and spectral width using beamforming techniques was discussed. A statistical investigation into the applicability of Capron and fourier PPB techniques for high-resolution estimation of the wind and reflectivity field maps was also carried out. The pulse pair processing was extended to the beamformed imaging systems by using reflectivity derived weight vectors to estimate the pulse pair parameters for both velocity and spectral width estimates. By numerical simulation, the new technique provided robust and computationally efficient estimates of the spectral moments.