Joint Track-Before-Detect Algorithm for High-Maneuvering Target Indication in Video SAR

Moving target shadows continuously appear in the sequential images produced by video synthetic aperture radar (SAR), which conducts research on shadow-based detection and tracking of moving targets. This article addresses a typical shadow-based detection and tracking problem of dim high-maneuvering targets in the complex background. Building upon the dynamic programming-based track-before-detect (DP-TBD) algorithm, this article proposes a joint-processing-strategy-based DP-TBD (JP-DP-TBD) algorithm to detect and track multiple high-maneuvering targets in video SAR. Benefiting from both of the location and radial velocity information of the targets in the video SAR image and range-Doppler (RD) spectrum, the JP-DP-TBD algorithm can screen the state candidate region and retain more states that conform to the motion law of the target. Meanwhile, we adopt a dual-frame close-range matching mechanism to complete the automatic initialization of the candidate target state, whose validity has been verified on the real video SAR data. Experimental results on simulated data demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has better detection ability and fewer false alarms in comparison with other TBD algorithms.