Publications Details

Detection of a chirping electromagnetic signal

Stearns, S.D.

A matched chirp transform (MCT) method for detecting a dispersive electromagnetic pulse is described. The unique feature of this transform is that it gives a distribution of signal amplitude over time rather than frequency, thereby simplifying signal detection and identification in the case described here. In the MCT method, the incoming signal is matched to a set of signal segments that chirp in accordance with an expected model of the dispersive medium. The performance of the MCT method is compared to that of a standard periodogram method of frequency measurement.