Detection Performance of Several Nonparametric Detectors under K-Distributed Clutter

Abstract

Because of nonparametric detectors’ ability of ensuring constant false alarm rate (CFAR) for a wide class of input noise distributions and engineering implementation simply, much efforts have been directed towards the study of nonparametric methods of signal detection. This paper deals with a comparative analysis of nonparametric detectors-GS, MW, Savage detector under K-distributed clutter in homogeneous and nonhomogeneous background caused by multiple targets and clutter edge. Some results of detection probability versus signal-to-clutter ratio (SCR) are presented in curves for different detector parameter values in homogeneous and multiple targets background. And the ability to control the false alarm probability for the three nonparametric detectors is presented in table. The simulation results show that S detector performs robustly in homogeneous background and clutter edge background, and can tolerate more interfering targets through increasing the number of reference cells and pulse sweeps. Therefore as a compromise solution, S detector with moderate parameters can be used in actual radar system.