Interactive processing of radar target detection and tracking

Purpose - An interactive processing scheme is proposed to improve the target detection probability as well as the tracking performance of the radar system. Design/methodology/approach - Firstly, with the spatial-correlated features extracted from the foreground and background statistical models, the thresholds were adapted to distinguish the dim small targets from clutters in the complex incoherent radar images. Then, the target trajectories were constructed with the target tracking algorithm. According to the temporal correlation with the target life cycle, the thresholding values were modified in the neighbourhood of the predicted positions to improve the detection sensitivity in these areas during the tracking process. Finally, the temporal-correlated features of the remained clutters were used to further reduce the false alarm rate. Findings - The proposed algorithm was applied on the simulated data, as well as the image sequences obtained with the incoherent marine radars. The detection results demonstrated that the interactive algorithm could detect and track the dim small targets with relatively low false alarm rate. Practical implications - The interactive processing scheme could be applied for low-altitude airspace surveillance with incoherent marine radar. Originality/value - The proposed scheme outperforms the classical radar target detection algorithms and the state-of-the-art image processing algorithms for video-based surveillance.