An Introduction to Radar Sliding Window Detectors

TL;DR

This paper introduces sliding window radar detectors as practical alternatives to Neyman-Pearson detectors, highlighting their historical development, recent advancements for maritime surveillance, and performance in interference environments.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of sliding window detection theory, recent criteria for constant false alarm rate design, and practical performance examples in modern radar clutter conditions.

Findings

Detectors can be designed with constant false alarm rate properties.

Performance demonstrated in maritime surveillance clutter environments.

Historical context and recent developments summarized.

Abstract

An introduction to the theory of sliding window detection processes, used as alternatives to optimal Neyman-Pearson based radar detectors, is presented. Included is an outline of their historical development, together with an explanation for the resurgence of interest in such detectors for operation in modern maritime surveillance radar clutter. In particular, recent research has developed criteria that enables one to construct such detection processes with the desired constant false alarm rate property for a comprehensive class of clutter model. The chapter also includes some examples of the performance of such detectors in a specific interference environment.