Improved Detection of Targets on the High-Resolution Range-Doppler Map in HFSWRs

In High Frequency Surface Wave Radar's primary signal processing, the detection of targets (ships) on the range-Doppler map presents a very important challenge because the radar's performance directly depends on the detection quality. For this purpose, Constant False Alarm Rate (CFAR) detectors are most often used. In the case when high-resolution methods are used to estimate the criterion function of range-Doppler map (RD-HR), other types of detectors, based on the morphology of the criterion function peaks, can also be used. In this paper, we present a method for improved target detection on the RD-HR map. The paper contains the overview of existing methods, the description of the proposed method, the performance analysis based on the acquired radar data and the comparison with existing detection methods. The results show an improvement in the detectability of targets, which is of great importance in tracking.