Performance analysis of multiple-scan detection in heavy heterogeneous sea clutter

Traditional detection approaches for the dim moving target are addressed under the background of homogeneous sea clutter. However, the realistic clutter commonly appears inhomogeneous, resulting in the low detectability. A heterogeneous multiple-scan detection framework is described in this paper, which combines the inhomogeneous coherent integration in the dwell of single scan and the non-coherent integration of the results from single-scan process across the multiple scans. In the inhomogeneous coherent integration, the Heterogeneous Single-scan Coherent Detector (HSCD) is derived, resorting to the two-step Generalized Likelihood Ratio Test (GLRT) criterion and a hybrid covariance matrix estimation scheme, where the nonhomogeneous Kelly detector and the inhomogeneous Adaptive Matched Filter (AMF) are also considered. Additionally, the Viterbi-Like (VL) algorithm is employed as the non-coherent integration strategy. Finally, the numerical simulations with Monte Carlo method analyze the performance of the nonhomogeneous multiple-scan detectors under amplitude and distribution clutter heterogeneity.