A Conditional-Test Sign Detector for Nonparametric Radar

The performance of a four-level sign detector in constant false-alarm rate (CFAR) radar is investigated. The detector uses a single independent reference noise observation per sweep and the nonparametric property is obtained through the use of a conditional statistical test. Detection performance is evaluated for the specific case of white Gaussian background noise with Rician statistics for signal plus noise. Both the asymptotic and finite-sample detection performance is determined and found to be significantly better compared with the sign detector.