Multi-Frame Clutter Suppression and Weak Target Detection for Non-side-looking Airborne Radar

Abstract

Weak target detection is a challenging problem in non-side-looking airborne radar (non-SLAR) system due to the strong near-range clutter. Traditional clutter suppression algorithms for non-SLAR usually use single frame data to estimate the covariance matrix or power spectrum, and the lack of samples makes the suppression performance weaker. Furthermore, the detection of targets is usually a single frame decision after clutter suppression, in which case, the missed detection of weak targets is extremely likely to occur. Based on these problems, a multi-frame joint clutter suppression and target detection (MF-CS-TD) algorithm is proposed in this paper. Through multi-frame weighted clutter energy estimation and automatic calibration of the measurement in clutter area during the energy iteration, clutter is effectively suppressed, target energy is successfully accumulated, thereby achieving the goal of weak target detection in the near-range clutter background. Numerical simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is able to provide better detection capabilities for targets with low signal-to-clutter ratio (SCR) compared with single-frame clutter suppression and target detection method.