Detection of Range Migrating Targets in Compound-Gaussian Clutter

Abstract

This paper deals with the problem of coherent radar detection of fast-moving targets in a high-range resolution mode. In particular, we are focusing on the spiky clutter modeled as a compound Gaussian process with rapidly varying power along range. Additionally, a fast-moving target of interest has a few range cells migration within the coherent processing interval. Two coherent CFAR detectors are proposed taking into account target migration and highly inhomogeneous clutter. Both detectors involve solution of a transcendental equation, carried out numerically in a few iterations. The performance evaluation is addressed by numerical simulations and it shows a significant improvement in detection of fast-moving targets in inhomogeneous heavy tailed radar clutter.