FOPEN Target Detection and Characterization

Abstract

This paper provides a summary of the major advances in the ability of RADAR to detect objects under foliage with sufficient characterization for scientific and tactical applications. Because of the spiky nature of foliage penetration clutter and the propagation losses through foliage, the concept of probability of detection and false alarm from microwave radars needs to be reexamined. Specific areas of RADAR research to improve foliage penetration (FOPEN) synthetic aperture RADAR (SAR) target detection include the uses of polarization diversity and change detection along with their impact on the image formation processing. Target characterization includes techniques to discriminate man-made from natural objects by using polarization and image morphological filtering. The paper starts with a short discussion of the image formation processing chain for efficient target detection. The details of image formation and a consideration of radio frequency interference (RFI) mitigation processing was given. However, it is instructive to look at the whole image formation, target detection, and feature characterization chain to understand the importance of polarimetry and change detection.