Search

We study the design of constant false-alarm rate (CFAR) tests for detecting a rank-one signal in the presence of background Gaussian noise with unknown spatial covariance. We look at invariant tests, i.e., those tests whose performance is Independent of the nuisance parameters, like the background noise covariance. Such tests are shown to have the desirable CFAR property. We characterize the class of all such tests by showing that any invariant decision statistic can be written as a function of two basic statistics which are in fact the adaptive matched filter (AMF) statistic and Kelly's generalized likelihood ratio statistic. Further, we establish an optimum test in the limit of low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the locally most powerful invariant (LMPI) test. We also derive the bound for the probability of detection of any invariant detector, at a fixed false-alarm rate, and compare the LMPI and the published detectors (Kelly and AMF) to it.

Adaptive array algorithms based on sample matrix inversion (SMI) require the availability of a secondary data set to 'train' the adaptive filter. Numerous data-independent rules have been proposed for selecting this training data. However, such rules often perform poorly in inhomogeneous environments. We present data-adaptive methodologies for selecting the training data. The techniques, called 'Power Selected Training' and 'Power Selected Deemphasis', use measurements of the interference environment to select training data. This work describes these algorithms and their performance on recorded radar data.