Genetic algorithm-based mathematical morphology for clutter removal in airborne radars

This paper presents a novel approach for clutter removal in airborne radars using a genetic algorithm and mathematical morphology. The clutter returns are detected when constant alarm rate processing is applied on range-Doppler images. In the proposed method, mathematical morphological operations are performed on range-Doppler images to obtain clutter images. The clutter image is then applied as a mask to remove false detections due to clutter. Also, the targets embedded in clutter are detected using gray-scale morphological operations. The morphological filter and the sequence of operations are designed by a genetic algorithm. The advantage of the proposed method is that it does not require the computation of statistical measures from clutter data and filters are optimally designed using a genetic algorithm. The proposed method has shown an increase in clutter leak reduction when compared to that of a deep morphological network.