Doppler estimation accuracy of linear FM waveforms

The single-pulse Doppler estimation accuracy of an unweighted linear FM waveform is analyzed in detail. Simple formulas are derived that predict that one-sigma Doppler estimation error for realistic radar applications. The effects of multiple target interference and nonlinearlities in the radar measurements are considered. In addition, a practical method to estimate Doppler frequency is presented. This technique uses the phase data after pulse compression, and it limits the effect of multiple target interference. In contrast, the available literature is based on the Cramer-Rao bound for Doppler accuracy, which ignores the effects of nonlinearities, multiple target interference and the question of practical implementation. A simple formula is derived that predicts the region of validity for the Cramer-Rao bound. This formula provides a criterion for minimum signal-to-noise ratio in terms of time-bandwidth product. Finally, an important concept that is demonstrated in this paper is that: the bulk of the Doppler information in a linear FM pulse is encoded in the range sidelobes after pulse compression.