An adaptive order statistic constant false alarm rate detector

An adaptive order statistic (AOS) detector is proposed which acts as an order statistic detector but whose parameter k is chosen according to the outcome of a hypothesis test that attempts to detect the presence of a clutter power transition within each reference window. The AOS detector is analyzed in exponentially distributed stationary clutter, and it is shown that it is indeed a constant-false-alarm-rate detector. Furthermore, the improvement in the false-alarm rate that can be achieved by using a properly designed AOS detector is demonstrated by means of computer simulations.<>