The performance of cell-averaging CFAR systems in sea clutter

This paper explores the performance of cell-averaging CFAR (CA-CFAR) detectors in sea clutter, using the compound K-distribution clutter model. The first section provides a brief introduction to the compound K-distribution model. This is followed by a description of the CA-CFAR configuration being investigated and a definition of CFAR loss. The definition of ideal CFAR performance is given to provide the basis against which CFAR gain can be assessed. Then, the CFAR loss in noise is developed analytically and compared with equivalent simulation results for clutter with no spatial correlation and for clutter with spatial correlation in range. Finally, the paper investigates methods for determining the threshold multiplier value, /spl alpha/, in different conditions, covering the estimation of the K-distribution shape parameter in clutter-plus-noise and analysis of the clutter distribution normalised by the cell-averager estimate of the mean level.