Spiky sea clutter and constant false alarm rate processing in high-resolution maritime radar systems

Recent statistical studies and practical experiments provide a firm evidence that the K-distribution is the most appropriate model for the long-tailed sea clutter that is peculiar to the high resolution and/or small grazing angle radar applications. In this paper K-distribution is revisited with amplitude statistics and temporal/spatial correlation properties reviewed. Assessment of ideal high resolution radar detection performance is analyzed via describing both “Ideal Fixed” and “Ideal CFAR” threshold detection criteria. Comparison of these two threshold detections is briefly mentioned. Different range CFAR procedures with sliding window techniques, including CA-CFAR, CAGO-CFAR, CASO-CFAR and OS-CFAR, are also addressed in this paper.