A Distribution-Free Doppler Processor

A distribution-free Doppler processor (DFDP) is described. This procedure is applicable to the detection of signals with unknown phase or signals which undergo a change in phase from one observation to the next. The procedure has the characteristic that the false-alarm probability is a constant, independent of the probability distribution of the received data when no signal is present. Also, an estimate of the Doppler frequency, when applied to a Doppler radar processor, is provided.