Improved Doppler velocity estimates by the poly-pulse-pair method

The applicability of poly-pulse-pair processing for microwave Doppler radar is considered. Poly-pulse-pair processing can improve the quality of mean velocity estimates for weak signal-to-noise ratio data if the spectral widths are small compared to the Nyquist interval. These improved estimates can be obtained only at a significant increase in computational cost. Often, however, estimates obtained with a pulse-pair-processing algorithm that uses a single lag of 2 or 3 times the pulse repetition period will be significantly better than that obtained for lag 1. When poly-pulse-pair processing or processing that uses a single lag greater than the first is used, potential velocity ambiguities can be resolved by means of the estimate made with the first lag.