Single Snapshot Coherent Detection in Sea Clutter

In this paper we consider the problem of coherent target detection in sea clutter. This is a challenging problem where traditional detectors exhibit significant performance degradation due to the non-Gaussianity and inhomogeneity of the radar returns. To tackle this challenge, we propose the use of the coherent single data set (SDS) and hybrid algorithms. The SDS algorithm removes the need for any training data and alleviates the effect of clutter heterogeneity. As no environment is entirely heterogeneous, the hybrid algorithm combines the single and traditional detection approaches to further enhance performance. The performance improvement of these algorithms are then demonstrated using Monte Carlo analysis with simulated sea clutter.