HYBRID CLUTTER-MAP L-CFAR PROCEDURE FOR CLUTTER REJECTION IN NONHOMOGENEOUS ENVIRONMENT/

The author introduces a new CFAR procedure, which relies on a hybrid c lutter-map/L-CFAR strategy, aimed at improving the system robustness a gainst possible nonhomegeneities, while preserving target detectabilit y in homogeneous environment. After presenting the procedure, guidelin es for the design of the relevant system subblocks are given, from bot h quantitative and qualitative points of view. As to the performance a nalysis, closed-form formulas are given for the detection and false al arm probabilties in case of a single point-like target, showing that p roper system design yields near-optimum performance. Moreover, approxi mated expressions of the detection probability are derived for the cas e of multiple targets entering the map cell, and possibly persisting i n there for several scans: it is shown that data censoring prevents th e masking effect which is typical of clutter-map systems, at the price of a very limited incremental CFAR loss.