Polarimetric adaptive detection in non-Gaussian noise

in this paper we address polarimetric adaptive detection of targets embedded in compound-Gaussian clutter with unknown covariance matrix. To this end we assume that a set of secondary data, free of signal components and with the same covariance structure of the cell under test, is available. We resort to a design procedure based upon the generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT): first we derive the GLRT assuming that the textures are known, then we plug into the derived test suitable estimates of these parameters. Remarkably, the newly proposed detector has the constant false alarm rate (CFAR) property with respect to the texture statistical characterization. Moreover, even though it does not ensure the CFAR property with respect to the clutter covariance matrix, a sensitivity analysis shows that the probability of false alarm is only slightly affected by variations in the clutter correlation properties. Finally, the performance assessment, conducted via Monte Carlo simulations, confirms the capability of the receiver to operate in real radar scenarios. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.