Impact of spatially and temporally nonstationary clutter on covariance matrix estimation

The sample covariance matrix (SCM) and normalized sample covariance matrix (NSCM) are the general estimators to estimate the covariance matrix of high-resolution sea clutter. Although two estimators have been proposed for a long time, their impacts on the spatially and temporally nonstationary sea clutter have not been analyzed until now. The adaptive normalized matched filter (ANMF) and block-ANMF detector are utilized to analyze the detection performance of those two estimators in spatially and temporally nonstationary sea clutter. It provides a theoretical guidance for the marine radar to detect targets.