A system for estimating a parameter of an object includes a receiver configured to detect a return signal of a radar signal, and a processing device configured to sample the return signal to generate a series of signal samples, partition a time frame into a plurality of successive segments k, and for each segment k, apply a Doppler Fourier transform and calculate a complex value yk as a function of Doppler frequencies fD. The processing device is also configured to calculate an index based on an acceleration hypothesis and a velocity hypothesis of a set of hypotheses, and for each segment, select one or more Doppler frequency bins based on the index and extract components of the complex value yk (fD) associated with each selected Doppler frequency bin. The processing device is further configured to calculate a velocity and acceleration spectrum, and estimate an object parameter based on the spectrum.