A MDL approach for determining the number of emitters using intra-pulse information

In electronic support measures (ESM) systems, intra-pulse analysis has attracted much interest because of its ability to handle complex signal environment. In this paper, we propose an approach for detecting the number of emitters using intra-pulse information. The approach is based on the application of the information theoretic criteria. It has the advantage of not requiring any threshold setting according to some subjective judgment, thus reducing the amount of human intervention for an autonomous ESM system. The algorithm is computationally efficient and suitable for real-time applications. Computer simulations are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.