Target Detection in Sea Clutter Using a Three-feature Prediction-based Method

Feature-based detection methods are often employed to address the challenges related to small-target detection in sea clutter. These methods determine the presence or absence of a target based on whether the feature value falls within a certain judgment region. However, such methods often overlook the temporal information between features. In fact, the temporal correlation between historical and current frame data can provide valuable a priori information, thereby enabling the calculation of the feature value of the current frame. To this end, this paper proposes a novel method for time-series modeling and prediction of radar echoes using an Auto-Regressive (AR) model in the feature domain, leveraging a priori information from historical frame features. To verify the feasibility of AR modeling and prediction of feature sequences, the AR model was first employed in the modeling and 1-step prediction analysis of Average Amplitude (AA), Relative Doppler Peak Height (RDPH), and Frequency Peak-to-Average Ratio (FPAR) feature sequences. Next, a technique for extracting feature values by utilizing the temporal information of historical frame features as a priori information was proposed. Based on this approach, a small-target detection method predicated on three-feature prediction, which can effectively utilize the temporal information of historical frame features for AA, RDPH, and FPAR, was proposed. Finally, the validity of the proposed method was verified using a measured data set. © 2023 Institute of Electronics Chinese Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.