Non-coherent radar CFAR detection based on goodness-of-fit tests

This paper considers the problem of constant false alarm rate (CFAR) detection of radar targets using multiple observations. In the Gaussian clutter scenario, the structure of the optimum (uniformly most powerful) CFAR detector is rather simple, but when the clutter is heavy-tailed, that is non-Gaussian distributed, the derivation of the optimal detector becomes infeasible. For this latter relevant case, a new CFAR algorithm is porposed based on goodness-of-fit (GoF) tests. The performance of the proposed detector is numerically investigated through Monte Carlo simulations assuming heavy-tailed Weibull and Lognormal distributed clutter. Numerical results shown that, in heavy-tailed clutter and also when several interfering targets exist, the proposed detector outperforms the conventional CFAR detector based on binary integration. Performance is also tested processing real sea clutter data collected by a non-coherent navigation radar