Automatic censored CFAR detection for nonhomogeneous environments

• Published in: IEEE transactions on aerospace and electronic systems Vol. 28; no. 1; pp. 286 - 304
• Main Authors: Himonas, S.D., Barkat, M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.01.1992; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Automatic testing; Background noise; Clouds; Clutter; Degradation; Detection, estimation, filtering, equalization, prediction; Detectors; Exact sciences and technology; Information, signal and communications theory; Noise level; Noise robustness; Radar detection; Signal and communications theory; Signal, noise; Telecommunications and information theory; Working environment noise; Detector; Estimation; Theoretical study; Probability; Performance; Algorithm; Signal detection
• ISSN: 0018-9251; 1557-9603
• DOI: 10.1109/7.135454

In constant false alarm rate (CFAR) detection, the clutter background in the cell under test is estimated by combining the outputs of the nearby resolution cells. In a nonhomogeneous background environment, the false alarm regulation capabilities and the detection performance of a CFAR detector depend on the robustness of the noise level estimator. The authors propose and study automatic censoring algorithms for nonhomogeneous clutter background environments. A cell-by-cell criterion for accepting or rejecting reference samples is introduced. The detection schemes that are considered do not require any a priori knowledge about the background environment. The case where a clutter edge is present in the reference window is considered, and the case of multiple target situations is studied. The case when both interfering targets and a clutter edge appear in the reference window of the cell under test is considered. The performances of the proposed schemes are compared with that of the trimmed-mean (TM) CFAR detector, in which the censoring points are preassigned.< >