Radar detection of targets: new theoretical findings and results by processing recorded live data

An overview on a number of new theoretical findings is presented for the optimum and suboptimum radar detection of fluctuating targets against a composite disturbance, which is modeled as a mixture of coherent K-distributed and Gaussian distributed disturbance. The optimum coherent detector, which derives from the likelihood ratio test, is used as the performance bound. Starting from some of its possible different analytical formulations, the optimum detector is approximated to give a family of suboptimum detectors, with performance close to optimal. The adaptive implementation of these detectors is discussed and the adaptivity loss is evaluated. The detection schemes are then fed with recorded live clutter data, and their performance are analyzed in such environment. The validity of the theoretical analysis is thus assessed as well as the practicality of the suboptimum detection schemes presented.