Signal Separation Of Helicopter Radar Returns Using Wavelet-Based Sparse Signal Optimisation

A novel wavelet-based sparse signal representation technique is used to separate the main and tail rotor blade components of a helicopter from the composite radar returns. The received signal consists of returns from the rotating main and tail rotor blades, the helicopter body, possible land or sea clutter, and other residual components, which may all overlap in time and frequency; and therefore conventional time and frequency separation techniques cannot be applied. A sparse signal representation technique is now proposed for this problem with the tunable Q wavelet transform used as the dictionary. The proposed algorithm is demonstrated using both simulated and real radar data (X and Ku-band), and is capable of extracting the components of interest successfully. RELEASE LIMITATION Approved for public release