A cognitive radar approach for extended target ranging

High-precision ranging radar is of vital importance in many fields. For an extended target, by exploiting the target impulse response (TIR), the ranging precision may be improved. In this paper, inspired by the concept of cognitive radar (CR), we propose a new approach for extended target ranging, in which waveform can be adaptively adjusted according to the varying TIR. In this approach, waveform design is accomplished by minimizing the Cramer-Rao bound (CRB) of the radial range conditioned on the TIR. Numerical results demonstrate that by using the proposed CR approach, ranging precision for the extended target can be clearly improved.