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MTI and Pulse Doppler Radar

MTI and Pulse Doppler radar
Moving target indication (MTI) is a mode of operation of a radar to discriminate a target
against clutter . In contrast to another mode, stationary target indication , it takes an
advantage of the fact that the target moves with respect to stationary clutter. The most common
approach is taking an advantage of the Doppler Effect . For a sequence of radar pulses the
moving target will be at different distance from the radar and the phase of the radar return from
the target will be different for successive pulses, while the returns from stationary clutter will
arrive at the same phase shift.

Doppler radar is a device that makes use of the Doppler Effect to produce velocity data about
objects at a distance. It does this by beaming a microwave signal towards a desired target and
listening for its reflection, then analyzing how the original signal has been altered by the
object(s) that reflected it. Variations in the frequency of the signal give direct and highly accurate
measurements of a target's velocity relative to the radar source and the direction of the
microwave beam. Doppler radars are used in aviation , sounding satellites, police speed guns ,
and radiology .

Doppler Filter Banks

A Doppler filter bank is a set of filters for detecting targets. A filter bank has several advantages
over the single filters:
1) Multiple moving targets can be separated from one another.

2) A measure of target’s radial velocity can be obtained.

3) Narrowband Doppler filters exclude more noise than do the MTI delay line Cancelers and
provide coherent integration.
Above three advantages are achieved at the cost of
1. Greater complexity,
2. Difficulty in achieving filters with low enough side lobes to reduce clutter
3. Need for significant number of pulses to produce desirable filter characteristics.

Digital MTI Processing

Advantages offered by Digital MTI Processing are:

1. Compensation of “Blind Phases” by using I and Q processing (in-phase and quadrature)

2. Greater dynamic range can be obtained than was possible with acoustic delay lines.
3. Accurate timings.
4. Delay time is made synchronous to radar’s PRF.
5. Digital processors can be made reprogrammable.
6. Digital MTI Processing is more reliable and stable than analog MTI.
7. It requires less adjustment during operation in the field.

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