Apparatus for measuring moving emitter elevation and azimuth direction from doppler change measurements

• US 5,774,087 A
• Filed: 02/20/1997
• Issued: 06/30/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 02/20/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation (Northrop Grumman Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Litton Systems Incorporated (Northrop Grumman Corporation)
• Inventors: Rose, Conrad M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sotomayor, John B.
• Application Number:
  US08/800,561
• Time in Patent Office: 495 Days
• Field of Search: 342/13, 342/78, 342/95, 342/96, 342/97, 342/113, 342/115, 342/140, 342/158, 342/162, 342/195, 342/417, 342/418, 342/425
• US Class Current: 342/13
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/52 using a receiving antenna moving, or appearing to move, in a cyclic path to produce a Doppler variation of frequency of the received signal
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/021 Auxiliary means for detecting or identifying radar signals or the like, e.g. radar jamming signals

Abstract

An electrical surveillance measures system for measuring direction of arrival (DOA), i.e., both azimuth and elevation, of a pulsed or continuous wave radar signal from a moving emitter. Either carrier frequency or pulse repetition interval (PARI) Doppler shift are used whereby the ratio of the Doppler shift is measured by a moving observer. The DOA is measured as a unit vector having basis vectors formed from a linearly independent set of observer'"'"'s velocity vectors. The DOA unit vector has a linear part where the coefficients of the basis vectors are derived directly from the ratios of frequency or PARI measurements taken in three contiguous dwells. The DOA unit vector has a nonlinear part formed from the requirement that the DOA vector have unit magnitude. The unit vector is resolved in the system coordinates in which emitter azimuth and elevation are defined to allow computation of the latter two values.

Claims

1. Apparatus for measuring, from a moving observer, direction of arrival (DOA), including azimuth and elevation, of a continuous wave radar signal from a moving emitter using Doppler shift, comprising:

an antenna for sensing the emitter radar signal,

receiver means for measuring emitter carrier frequency over a predetermined dwell period,

navigation signal means for measuring observer velocity, i.e., speed and heading during a dwell and providing corresponding output signals,

observer control means for changing observer heading, speed or both between dwells or observer altitude during a dwell for establishing at least two linearally independent velocity vector differences,

memory means for receiving outputs from said receiver means and said navigation signal means for storing three contiguous velocities measured during three contiguous dwells and the respective three measured emitter carrier frequencies,

first computation means for taking the difference of the velocities and forming inverse coordinate basis vectors corresponding to these two unique velocity differences,

first processor means for forming corresponding ratios of the carrier frequency measurements and forming basis set coefficients for two of said basis vectors,

second processor means for deriving a normalizing coefficient for a third inverse coordinate basis vector so that the DOA unit vector is measured by equation 4 and

second computation means for resolving the DOA unit vector in the system coordinates in which the emitter azimuth and elevation angles are defined and to compute the azimuth and elevation angle from the coefficients of the unit vector in those coordinates.

2. The apparatus defined in claim 1 wherein said DOA measurement is made using a pulsed repetition interval Doppler shift, wherein said receiver means measures the emitter radar pulse times of arrival (TOA) over a predetermined dwell period, comprising additionally:

a pulse deinterleaver to derive the fundamental time period (t_p) between pulses in a frame determined by the TOA measurements during said predetermined dwell,

said memory means storing three contiguous t_p measurements corresponding with said three contiguous velocities measured during said three contiguous dwells.

said first processor means forming corresponding ratios of the pulse repetition frequency measurements and forming coefficients for two of said inverse coordinate basis vectors.

3. The apparatus described in claim 1 wherein said predetermined dwell period is in a range of from 10 milliseconds to 5 seconds.

4. The apparatus defined in claim 1 wherein signal angle of arrival (AOA) is determined to a possibly moving emitter by an observer flying a constant heading, but two different speeds for two different dwells wherein:

said first processor means forms said basis coefficients which are related to said two speeds and from which the AOA can be determined.