An Adaptive Sea Surface Target Detection Method Based on Amplitude Scaling

To address the challenge of detecting sea surface targets under complex non-Gaussian sea clutter backgrounds, this paper proposes a general adaptive detection method based on amplitude distribution mapping. First, a mapping relationship is established between non-Gaussian sea clutter data and the Rayleigh distribution, enabling unified processing of various non-Gaussian clutter environments. Based on this, a Generalized Likelihood Ratio Test (GLRT) detector suitable for the mapped clutter data is derived. The proposed detector does not require parameter estimation of the sea clutter’s amplitude distribution model, thereby exhibiting strong adaptability to non-Gaussian sea clutter. Simulation and real sea clutter data experiments demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms conventional adaptive target detectors in terms of detection performance.