Enhanced monopulse radar tracking using optimum fractional Fourier transform

Conventional monopulse radar processors are used to track a target that appears in the look direction beam width. The distortion produced when additional targets appear in the look direction beam width can cause severe erroneous outcomes from the monopulse processor. This leads to errors in the target tracking angles that may cause target mistracking. A new signal processing algorithm is presented in this paper which offers a solution to this problem. The technique is based on the use of optimal Fractional Fourier Transform (FrFT) filtering. The relative performance of the new filtering method over traditional based methods is assessed using standard deviation angle estimation error (STDAE) for a range of simulated environments. The proposed system configuration succeeds in significantly cancelling additional target signals appearing in the look direction beam width even if these targets have the same Doppler frequency.