In many radar applications, knowing a target's present position (angle and range) relative to the radar is not enough. Often one must be able to predict the target's position at some future time. For that, we must also know the target's angular rate and its range rate. Range rate may be determined by one of two general methods. In the first, called range differentiation, the rate is computed on the basis of the change in the measured range with time. In the second and generally superior method, the radar measures the target's doppler frequency - which is directly proportional to the range rate. In this chapter, we will look at both methods briefly. We will then take stock of potential doppler ambiguities and see how they may be resolved.

Chapter Contents:

• Range Differentiation
• Doppler Method
• Potential Doppler Ambiguities
• Resolving Doppler Ambiguities

Inspec keywords: target tracking; Doppler radar; radar tracking

Other keywords: range rate measurement; Doppler ambiguities; radar target position; Doppler frequency; radar application; target range rate; range differentiation; target angular rate

Subjects: Radar equipment, systems and applications