Abstract
Detection and tracking of small targets in sea clutter using high-resolution radar is a challenging problem. Recently, a Bernoulli track-before-detect (TBD) filter has been developed for an airborne scanning radar in the maritime domain, with the purpose of detection and tracking of short-exposure targets by using a fast scanning mode (i.e., short dwell-time and noncoherent integration). This article investigates the potential benefits of coherent radar processing and exploitation of Doppler information in TBD, when the radar operates in a slower scanning mode (i.e., using longer dwell times). For this purpose, a new Bernoulli TBD filter is developed, which is capable of processing full three-dimensional (range-azimuth-Doppler) radar data. The amplitude of sea clutter is modeled using the K distribution with Doppler-dependent shape and scale parameters. Numerical results indicate that the new Bernoulli TBD outperforms the fast scanning TBD filter, at signal-to-interference ratios below 6 dB.
Highlights
The conventional approach to target tracking, referred to as detect--track, is based on point measurements obtained as outputs of a radar detection scheme
If the task is to detect and track targets characterised by a low signal to interference ratio (SIR), the threshold needs to be reduced in order to increase the probability of detection
Track-before-detect (TBD) is an alternative approach to detecting and tracking targets characterised by a low SIR: instead of point measurements, it uses the entire frame from a surveillance radar as a measurement
Summary
The conventional approach to target tracking, referred to as detect--track, is based on point measurements obtained as outputs of a radar detection scheme. We have developed a Bernoulli TBD filter for maritime radar as the optimal recursive Bayesian solution [25] This filter was developed to detect and track short exposure targets using a short dwell-time and non-coherent integration in the fast scanning radar mode. The objective of the current paper is to investigate the potential benefits of coherent radar processing (and the exploitation of Doppler information) in TBD, when the radar operates in a slower scanning mode using a longer dwell. In contract to the approach presented in this paper, exploitation of Doppler information in conventional target tracking using point measurements, has focused primarily on improved velocity estimation, data association and faster track initiation [27].
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