Wideband radar detector based on characteristic parameters of echoes

The statistical characterization of radar range cells with the target signals is much more distinct than that of the range cells with noise-only signals. Hence, the quasi-optimal detection principle based on the characteristic parameters of echo signals is adopted to develop a detector of range-spread targets in Gaussian noise. Firstly, the characteristic parameters of the return signals in the entire range profiles of radar are investigated. Secondly, the clustering analysis of the characteristic parameter matrix is discussed to extract the test statistic of echoes. Finally, the probabilities of detection and false alarm of the proposed detector are provided. Theoretical analysis shows that the proposed detector does not need the prior knowledge about the spatial distribution of the target scattering centers in practical scenarios, and it is simple and robust even in low signal-to-noise ratio (low-SNR) scenarios. Monte Carlo (MC) simulations reveal that the detection performance of the proposed detector outperforms the conventional detectors.