Improved adaptive co-pulse differential methods for nautical radar small target detection in sea clutter

Detection of small targets in sea clutter is an important issue for nautical radar signal processing. Firstly two improved adaptive co-pulse differential methods were presented in this paper, based on different modulation effects of radar antenna to small target and azimuth distributed sea clutter. Then the performance of the proposed methods was analyzed and the selection of optimum algorithm parameters was discussed. Considering that sea clutter's characteristic is random and time varying, the auto-relativity of sea clutter which was part of key algorithm parameters was estimated adaptively. Finally, field data acquired by a shore-based X-band non-coherent nautical radar was used to validate the proposed methods.