Doppler beam-sharpened radar altimeter

A Doppler beam-sharpened radar altimeter, comprising:

• a processor generating a range gate, wherein the range gate tracks a first component of the return signal;
• a spectral analyzer performing spectral analysis on a return signal to generate a plurality of frequency bins, wherein each frequency bin is centered around a different frequency in a Doppler shift frequency spectrum;
• a selector selecting a frequency bin for further processing;
• and
• a power management circuit (PMC) for:
• detecting the signal strength of the return signal;
• and
• maintaining the signal strength of the return signal at an approximately constant level by varying the transmit power of a transmitted signal.

A Doppler beam-sharpened radar altimeter, comprising:

• a receiver for receiving a return signal;
• and
• a track channel communicatively coupled to the receiver, wherein the track channel comprises:
• a first gating circuit that generates a range gate, wherein the range gate tracks the return signal;
• a track processor, wherein the track processor applies a windowing scheme to the return signal;
• a first spectral analyzer that generates a first plurality of frequency bins corresponding to a Doppler shift frequency spectrum of the return signal;
• and
• a first selector that selects a first frequency bin of the first plurality of frequency bins based on the Doppler shift frequency of a first component of the return signal.