Rare-event simulation for radar threshold estimation in heavy-tailed sea clutter

Rare-event Monte Carlo (MC) simulation is useful for estimating the threshold level for radar systems where conventional methods do not work and crude MC is not feasible. In this paper, a conditional Monte-Carlo technique, well-adapted to subexponential clutter distributions, is successfully applied to high-resolution airborne maritime radar systems that employ a combination of range stretching and scan-to-scan feedback integration.