Target detection in sea clutter using resonance based signal decomposition

Detection in the maritime domain requires the radar return from an object of interest (target) to be distinguishable from the background interference (sea clutter and noise). These radars traditionally use non-coherent processing methods due to the time-varying and range-varying nature of the Doppler spectra. However, the radar backscatter may contain sea-spikes which can last for seconds and resemble targets. In this paper, a method of sparse signal separation known as ‘basis pursuit denoising’ has been applied to two different sea clutter data sets to demonstrate the potential for improved detection performance. We also explore how the parameters required for this technique can be selected depending on the target velocity.