<title>Spatial Filtering For Clutter Rejection In (Moving) Point-Target Detection</title>

Abstract

In carrying out a fairly extensive amount of analysis of the expected performance of various types of signal processing schemes for detection of point targets with a mosaic sensor, we have observed that moving target detection in a cluttered background is so effectively accomplished by an MTI processor that there is virtually no additional help to be obtained from a spatial filtering processor. This does mean that in all cases tharget detection is assured by MTI signal processing methods. The target strength may be so low, or the clutter level so high that nothing can be done that will result in an adequate signal-to-clutter ratio. But in any case, what we have found is that the signal-to-clutter ratio obtained with MTI signal processing alone is much higher than the signal-to-clutter ratio obtained with spatial filtering alone, and that the combination of spatial filtering with MTI signal processing yields a signal-to-clutter ratio that is not noticeably better than that obtained with MTI signal processing alone. In the following we shall try to present an analytical basis for understanding why this is the case.