CFAR METHOD BY STATISTICAL SEGMENTATION AND NORMALISATION

摘要

The invention relates to electromagnetic detection of targets or objects, in particular radar detection and the aim of said invention is a solution to the problem caused by the variation in the ambient signal level along the range of the radar which reduces the detection performance. In uneven regions or in the presence of large relief elements the above problem is inadequately resolved by the application to the received signal of known procedures such as maintaining a constant false alarm rate (CFAR). Said aim is achieved with a method comprising at least the following steps: a Doppler filtering (32), a determination of a map of the zones of homogeneous clutter (41), a normalisation of the received signal (42) and a detection step (43). The step of determination of a map of the zones of homogeneous clutter (41) is carried out by application of an iterative algorithm of statistical segmentation of the SEM type to the complex data from the Doppler filtering step. Said data are treated in a complex form, the algorithm being applied to the real and imaginary parts of the data. The step of determination of a map of the zones of homogeneous clutter may also comprise a complementary iterative process of fusion of the classes of environment, which permits a parametrable optimisation of the number of classes of environment used to determine the map of the zones of homogeneous clutter.