Patent ID: 7688257

Claim:
A method comprising: a) transmitting a first waveform from an antenna as received from a transmitter, the waveform comprising a plurality of non-linear frequency modulation (NLFM) pulse compression sub-pulses, each sub-pulse being separated in time by a receive interval and in frequency by Δf; b) receiving at a receiver any returns associated with the transmitted sub-pulses; c) if transmission of the first waveform is complete and a predefined time-out has expired, performing calibration comprising: transmitting a second waveform directly from the transmitter to the receiver, the second waveform being essentially identical to the first waveform when outputted by the transmitter; and generating one or more calibration filters based on the transmitted second waveform and one or more previously defined ideal pulses; d) if transmission of the second waveform is complete, returning to a) for a next waveform; e) generating a wideband range profile from the received returns associated with the transmitted sub-pulses based on the one or more calibration filters and a previously defined pulse compression filter; f) processing the wideband range profile for output; and g) outputting the processed wideband range profile.