AN EXTENDED TRACK-BEFORE-DETECT ALGORITHM FOR INFRARED TARGET DETECTION

Track-Before-Detect (TBD) approaches have important applications such as the detection of small, dim targets in a long-range Infrared Detect ion and Tracking (IRDT) system. The movement model of target limited b y TBD is extended to that of target with constant acceleration in this work. An algorithm based an linear variant-coefficient difference equ ation for moving target indication is proposed. Moreover, based on par ametric models of target and background, this paper presents an analys is of its optimal signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) gain versus target and b ackground characteristics as wen as the sensitivity of this gain to mi smatch.