As a cost-effective and robust technology, automotive radar has seen steady improvement during the last years. Radio frequency (RF) images, serving as a radar data format with rich semantic information, have attracted considerable interest in radar object detection. Previous RF-based models heavily rely on convolutional neural networks, leading to the high computational cost. To solve this problem, we propose a model called Mask-RadarNet to fully utilize the hierarchical semantic features from the RF image sequences. Mask-RadarNet exploits the combination of interleaved convolution and attention operations in the encoder. In addition, patch shift is introduced to Mask-RadarNet for efficient spatial-temporal feature learning. By shifting part of patches with a specific mosaic pattern in the temporal dimension, Mask-RadarNet achieves competitive performance while reducing the computational burden of the spatial-temporal modeling. In order to capture the spatial-temporal semantic contextual information, we design the class masking attention module (CMAM) in our encoder. Moreover, a lightweight auxiliary decoder is added to our model to aggregate prior maps generated from the CMAM. Experiments on the CRUW dataset demonstrate that the proposed Mask-RadarNet achieves state-of-the-art performance with relatively lower computational complexity and fewer parameters.

This letter addresses the problem of adaptive target detection in the presence of possible mismatched sidelobe interfering signals assumed orthogonal to the nominal target signature in the whitened space. To this end, we devise a joint Maximum Likelihood (ML)-Bayesian based detector that simultaneously improves the target detection performance and the rejection capability of the mismatched signals. Specifically, we first inject an orthogonal interfering signal into the null hypothesis of the traditional binary hypothesis test and, then, solve it by means of the latent variable model and the Expectation Maximization algorithm. Finally, we maximize the posterior probability of the hypotheses for decision. In addition, we prove the Constant False-Alarm Rate property of the proposed detection architecture. The illustrative examples conducted on synthetic data corroborate the enhanced detection performance and rejection capability with respect to the state-of-the-art.

This paper proposes a simple Constant False Alarm Rate (CFAR) approach relying on the expectation-maximization algorithm to deal with clutter edges. The possible signal backscattered from a target is modeled as an incoherent pulse train and the newly-introduced CFAR technique is assessed in conjunction with an energy detector. Natural competitors are the well-known Cell-Averaging (CA), Greatest Of (GO), and Smallest Of (SO) CFAR techniques. The performance analysis shows that the proposed approach outperforms the state-of-the-art competitors in terms of false alarms control while maintaining satisfying detection performance.

The main problem related to Persistent Scatterer (PS) interferometry is the lack of large point clouds in rural areas, although it has proven to be a powerful tool in urban scenarios, especially in monitoring buildings with possible slow temporal deformations. The identification of PSs in low Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) areas is crucial and can be done using a multiple hypothesis test to detect the possible presence of multiple scatterers [1]. In this paper, we frame this problem by exploiting the Kullback-Leibler Information Criterion (KLIC), developed in [2], to address the design of one-stage adaptive sensing architectures for multiple hypothesis testing problems in PS interferometry. Theoretical analysis shows the equivalence between the algorithm developed in [1] and [2] for a single scatterer. In this context we use the scheme of multiple hypothesis, provided in [2], for both the formalization of rural PS detection problem and its solution.

This letter presents a fast gridless direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation algorithm that improves the Fast Interior-Point Method (FastIPM). The proposed algorithm effectively achieves a significant reduction in computational load for large-scale arrays while maintaining an accurate estimation. It reduces the complexity of gridless DOA estimation to$\mathcal {O}(N^{2})$per iteration (according to the Landau notation). Compared to the original FastIPM, we extend the received signal data model to account for more general scenarios that include missing array elements and arbitrary number of snapshots. By formulating the problem as an optimization with an obstacle function, we iteratively minimize the dual gap to obtain the optimal solution for atomic norm minimization problem. Extensive numerical simulations demonstrate the algorithm's computational superiority over the state-of-the-art gridless DOA estimation methods, providing excellent resolution and accuracy.

In remote sensing, target detection in hyperspectral systems is a crucial duty since it enables the localization and discrimination of target features. For this purpose, reflectance spectra are frequently utilized, and the spectral signatures with corresponding component abundances in the observed scene are displayed. Nevertheless, many hyperspectral sensors have restricted spatial resolution, namely only a part of the pixel is occupied by the targets, and the spectra of multiple sub-pixel targets, along with the background spectrum, gets combined within a single pixel. Therefore, we propose in this paper a generalized replacement model that considers different sub-pixel target spectra and execute the detection process as a binary hypothesis test. This method shows to work well in handling this problem.

Modern wireless communication networks are threatened by new generations of radio hackers. These are skilled attackers equipped with low-cost software radios, suitably instrumented so as to monitor, degrade, or even alter the radio signals. The aim of this paper is to devise innovative detection architectures against the most common classes of threats: broadband noise jammers, whose goal is to reduce the signal-to-noise ratio, and spoofing/meaconing attacks, which aim to inject false or incorrect information into the receiver. To this end, we resort to the hypothesis testing theory and solve the associated problems by means of the GLRT possibly accounting for penalty terms. The resulting decision schemes represent the main technical novelty of this work. The analysis of their performance focuses on a location security case study for 4G/5G cellular networks. To this end, we leverage measurement models from the cellular localization literature and generate data according to these models. The numerical results show the effectiveness of the proposed approaches in comparison with suitable counterparts.

One of the problems associated with electromagnetic imaging is that the interaction of photons with targets occurs only on part of their surface, namely those exposed to the transmitted energy rays. Imaging of deep localized objects is very hard especially in the presence of short electromgnetic wavelengths. In this paper we propose a new method for through wall imaging, based on photons and sound waves analysis. The technique investigates Doppler analysis in terms of estimating vibrations generated on infrastructures. The proposed method estimates target's vibration energy in order to perform tomographic imaging of man-made objects, such as buildings. Unlike traditional imaging, this technique allows for through wall imaging. The experimental results are distributed over one case study, where we show the to-mographic imaging of a reinforced concrete infrastructure. We consider this preliminary work very promising for future applications performed from the processing of satellite synthetic aperture radar images.

In this letter, a new approach for the retrieval of the vertical column concentrations of trace gases from hyperspectral satellite observations is proposed. The main idea is to perform a linear spectral unmixing by estimating the abundances of trace gases’ spectral signatures in each mixed pixel collected by an imaging spectrometer in the ultraviolet region. To this aim, the sparse nature of the measurements is brought to light and the compressive sensing paradigm is applied to estimate the concentrations of the gases’ endmembers given by ana prioriwide spectral library, including reference cross sections measured at different temperatures and pressures at the same time. The proposed approach has been experimentally assessed using both simulated and real hyperspectral datasets. Specifically, the experimental analysis relies on the retrieval of sulfur dioxide during volcanic emissions using data collected by the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument. To validate the procedure, we also compare the obtained results with the sulfur dioxide total column product based on the differential optical absorption spectroscopy technique and the retrieved concentrations estimated using the blind source separation.

In this letter, we propose a frequency diverse array multiple-input multiple-output radar detection architecture for distributed targets embedded in Gaussian interference with unknown but stochastic covariance matrix. At the design stage, we model distributed targets within one range cell as a linear combination of several contributions and assume that the interference covariance matrix obeys the inverse complex Wishart distribution. Then, we devise an adaptive decision rule by jointly exploiting the maximum likelihood approach and the Bayesian framework. Unlike existing contributions in this context, the proposed detector does not require the conventional set of training data to estimate the interference covariance matrix. The numerical examples validate the effectiveness of the proposed method also in comparison with suitable counterparts.

This letter deals with the problem of clutter edge detection and localization in training data. To this end, the problem is formulated as a binary hypothesis test assuming that the ranks of the clutter covariance matrix are known, and adaptive architectures are designed based on the generalized likelihood ratio test to decide whether the training data within a sliding window contains a homogeneous set or two heterogeneous subsets. In the design stage, we utilize four different covariance matrix structures (i.e., Hermitian, persymmetric, symmetric, and centrosymmetric) to exploit the a priori information. Then, for the case of unknown ranks, the architectures are extended by devising a preliminary estimation stage resorting to the model order selection rules. Numerical examples based on both synthetic and real data highlight that the proposed solutions possess superior detection and localization performance with respect to the competitors that do not use any a priori information.

This letter addresses the adaptive classification of the Interference Covariance Matrix (ICM) structures in radar applications. This is an essential issue when the design assumptions do not perfectly match the actual operating scenario due to environment uncertainties. Thus, in this letter, we propose a classifier capable of identifying the ICM structure as either complex Hermitian or real-valued symmetric. To this end, a Bayesian approach is employed by assuming a suitable model for the probability density function of the unknown ICM. This classification problem is firstly formulated in terms of a binary hypothesis test and the posterior probability is maximized to devise the classifier. Furthermore, the classifier resorts to secondary data only which are obtained from the adjacent cells around the cell under test and share the same ICM structure as the primary data. The illustrative examples conducted on simulated data have confirmed the superiority of the proposed classifier compared with its state-of-the-art non-Bayesian counterparts.

In this letter, we deal with the problem of high-resolution time delay estimation (TDE) in multipath environments exploiting the matched filter (MF) outputs data. To this end, we develop a systematic post-processing framework, consisting of two sparsity-based algorithms and a refining procedure aimed at reducing the computational load. The TDE problem is formulated as a sparse signal recovery problem and efficiently solved resorting to a majorization-minimization paradigm and a cyclic procedure. At the design stage, we assume a complex-valued Gaussian distribution model for the MF samples and incorporate a module-product prior that promotes the sparsity more significantly than the conventional complex Laplacian distribution. The preliminary performance assessment, conducted on simulated data, shows that, at least for the considered parameter values, the proposed delay estimators approach the Cramér-Rao bound for different signal-to-noise ratios and bandwidths.

In this article, anomaly detection is considered for hyperspectral imagery in the Gaussian background with an unknown covariance matrix. The anomaly to be detected occupies multiple pixels with an unknown pattern. Two adaptive detectors are proposed based on the generalized likelihood ratio test design procedure and ad hoc modification of it. Surprisingly, it turns out that the two proposed detectors are equivalent. Analytical expressions are derived for the probability of false alarm of the proposed detector, which exhibits a constant false alarm rate against the noise covariance matrix. Numerical examples using simulated data reveal how some system parameters (e.g., the background data size and pixel number) affect the performance of the proposed detector. Experiments are conducted on five real hyperspectral data sets, demonstrating that the proposed detector achieves better detection performance than its counterparts.

Most localization systems rely on measurements gathered from signals emitted by stations whose position is assumed known as ground truth, namely anchors. As demonstrated by a significant bulk of experimental research, location security is threatened when an attacker becomes able to tamper either the signals emitted by the stations, or convince the user that the anchor station is in a different position than the true one. With this paper, we first propose a formal threat model which captures the above-mentioned wide class of attacks, and permits to quantitatively evaluate how tampering of one or more anchor locations undermines the user’s localization accuracy. We specifically derive a Cramér Rao Bound for the localization error, and we assess a number of example scenarios. We believe that our study may provide a useful formal benchmark for the design and analysis of detection and mitigation solutions.

In this paper, the problem of classifying radar clutter returns into statistically homogeneous subsets is addressed. To this end, latent variables, which represent the classes to which the tested range cells belong, in conjunction with the expectation- maximization method are jointly exploited to devise the classification architecture. Moreover, two different models for the structure of the clutter covariance matrix are considered. At the analysis stage, numerical examples based on simulated data for the classification performance are presented showing the effectiveness of the proposed classification schemes.

This study aims at estimating the Earth deformations due to the nuclear test carried out by North Korea on the 3rdof September 2017 by processing a time series of synthetic aperture radar images acquired by the COSMO-SkyMed satellite constellation. For active satellite sensors working in the X-band, phase information can be unreliable if scenarios with dense vegetation are observed. This uncertainty makes difficult to correctly estimate both the interferometric fringes and the information phase delay generated by the variation in the space-time domain of the atmospheric parameters. To this end, in our research we apply the Sub-Pixel Offset Tracking technique, so that the displacement information is extrapolated during the coregistration process. The results reveal an accurate estimate of the spatial displacement of similar pixels due to the nuclear explosion. The work also reveals a hypothetical underground tunnel network.

This letter addresses the detection problem of dim maneuvering targets in the presence of range cell migration. Specifically, it is assumed that the moving target can appear in more than one range cell within the transmitted pulse train. Then, the Bayesian information criterion and the generalized likelihood ratio test design procedure are jointly exploited to come up with six adaptive decision schemes capable of estimating the range indices related to the target migration. The computational complexity of the proposed detectors is also studied and suitably reduced. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the newly proposed solutions also for a limited set of training data and in comparison with suitable counterparts.

This letter focuses on adaptive target detection in the presence of multiple interference sources, which comprise clutter, thermal noise, noise-like jammers, and fully-correlated (or coherent) signals. In order to account for different operating scenarios, we formulate the problem at hand in terms of a multiple hypothesis test with several alternative hypotheses representative of each considered scenario. In this context, we devise a family of two-stage detection architectures capable of classifying the specific scenario and, hence, of working under different operating conditions. The performance analysis shows the effectiveness of the detector based upon the Generalized Information Criterion also in comparison with traditional adaptive decision schemes.

In this paper, we investigate the anomaly detection problem for multi-pixel targets in hyperspectral imagery when training data are available. We derive the generalized likelihood ratio test and obtain its analytical expressions of the probability of false alarm and probability of detection. The performance of the proposed detector is evaluated by using simulated and real data. The results demonstrate that this training data assisted detector outperforms its counterpart without training data.

In this letter, we design a novel unsupervised architecture for automatic classification of the dominant polarization in polarimetric SAR images. To this end, we leverage the ideas developed in [1] and suitably exploit them to build a decision logic capable of recognizing the dominant scattering mechanism which characterizes the pixel under test. Specifically, we combine the original data to generate three different sets of reduced-size vectors, which feed dominant eigenvalues classifier based upon the model order selection rules. Then, the outputs of the latter classification schemes are exploited to infer, according to a specific criterion, the dominant polarization. The performance analysis is conducted on the measured data and points out the effectiveness of the newly proposed classification architecture also showing that information about the dominant polarization can be representative of the type of structure which gives raise to the dominant backscattering mechanism.

In this work, we develop and compare two innovative strategies for parameter estimation and radar detection of multiple point-like targets. The first strategy, which appears here for the first time, jointly exploits the maximum likelihood approach and Bayesian learning to estimate targets' parameters including their positions in terms of range bins. The second strategy relies on the intuition that for high signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio values, the energy of data containing target components projected onto the nominal steering direction should be higher than the energy of data affected by interference only. The adaptivity with respect to the interference covariance matrix is also considered exploiting a training data set collected in the proximity of the window under test. Finally, another important innovation aspect concerns the adaptive estimation of the unknown number of targets by means of the model order selection rules.

This letter proposes a novel technique for automatic classification of the dominant scattering mechanisms associated with the pixels of polarimetric SAR images. Focusing on the heterogeneous scenario wherein the polarimetric image pixels share the same covariance but different power levels, the original data are replaced by a maximal invariant statistic in order to remove the dependence on the scaling factors. Then, the classification problem is formulated as a multiple hypothesis test which is addressed by applying the model order selection rules. The performance analysis is conducted on both simulated and measured data and points out the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

This letter addresses adaptive radar detection of dim moving targets. To circumvent range migration, the detection problem is formulated as a multiple hypothesis test and solved applying model order selection rules which allow to estimate the “position” of the target within the CPI and eventually detect it. The performance analysis shows that the newly proposed architectures can provide an accurate estimate of the target position along with improved detection performance with respect to existing competitors.

In this letter, an adaptive approach to classify the structure of the Interference Covariance Matrix (ICM) is proposed. It extends the framework of [1] to the heterogeneous environment where the secondary radar data used to estimate the ICM share the same covariance structure but different power levels. In particular, the considered classification problem is formulated in terms of a multiple hypothesis test and the Principle of Invariance is exploited to replace original data with a suitable statistic whose distribution is independent of the power scaling factors. Then, classification schemes are devised resorting to model order selection rules. At the analysis stage, the effectiveness of the newly devised classifiers is illustrated over simulated data as well as radar measured data.

In this letter, the problem of environment classification in the radar context is addressed. Specifically, adaptive architectures are conceived to classify training data, used for covariance estimation, as either homogeneous or heterogeneous. Such architectures are based upon the generalized likelihood ratio test criterion and exploit three covariance matrix structures (i.e., Hermitian, persymmetric, and symmetric structures). Numerical examples based on both synthetic and real data confirm the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms. It is important to highlight that the proposed architectures might represent a preliminary stage whose decisions can be used to select a suitable covariance estimate for target detection purposes.

In synthetic aperture radar (SAR), the separation of the height between the ground subsidence phase components and the atmospheric phase delay mixed in the global SAR interferometry (InSAR) phase information is an issue of primary concern in the remote sensing community. This paper describes a complete procedure to address the challenge to estimate the atmospheric phase screen and to separate the three-phase components by exploiting only one InSAR image couple. This solution has the capability to process persistent scatterers subsidence maps potentially using only two multitemporal InSAR couples observed in any atmospheric condition. The solution is obtained by emulating the atmosphere compensation technique that is largely used by the global positioning system where two frequencies are used in order to estimate and compensate the positioning errors due to atmosphere parameters' variations. A sub-chirping and sub-Doppler algorithm for atmospheric compensation is proposed, which allows the successful separation of the height from the subsidence and the atmosphere parameters from the interferometric phase observed on one InSAR couple. The results are given processing images of two InSAR couples observed by the COSMO-SkyMed satellite system.

In this paper, an automatic classification approach for polarimetric covariance structure is derived and assessed. It extends the framework of Pallotta et al. “Detecting Covariance Symmetries in Polarimetric SAR Images” to the heterogeneous environment, where the pixels of the polarimetric image share the same covariance structure but different power levels. The Principle of Invariance is exploited to replace the original data with a suitable statistic whose distribution is independent of the scale factors. Then, the classification problem is formulated in terms of a multiple hypotheses test and solved by means of model order selection rules. The behavior of the newly devised classifiers is first assessed over simulated data also in comparison with the analogous counterparts for a homogeneous environment. Next, the classification performances are evaluated on real measured data corroborating the satisfactory results highlighted in the simulations.

In this letter, we devise and assess a new algorithm to detect a platform equipped with self-screening jamming systems. The latter illuminates the victim radar by means of noise-like signals leading to an increase of the constant false alarm rate threshold (at the detection stage) and a reduction of radar sensitivity. The problem is formulated in terms of a binary hypothesis test exploiting the rank-one modification of the interference covariance matrix introduced by the jammer and the generalized likelihood ratio test is derived. Performance analysis is conducted on simulated data and is aimed at highlighting the effectiveness of this new approach.

In this letter, we address adaptive radar detection of point-like targets in Gaussian clutter with an unknown covariance matrix. To this end, we first exploit the symmetrically structured power spectral density of the clutter to transfer data from the complex to the real domain. Then, the spillover of target energy is incorporated into the design criteria to come up with two architectures capable of guaranteeing improved detection performances and range estimation. The performance assessments, conducted on both simulated data and real recorded datasets, demonstrate the effectiveness of the newly proposed detectors compared with the state-of-the-art counterparts, which ignore either the clutter spectral symmetry or the energy spillover.

This paper deals with detection of oil spills from multipolarization synthetic aperture radar images. The problem is cast in terms of a composite hypothesis test aimed at discriminating between the polarimetric covariance matrix (PCM) equality (absence of oil spills in the tested region) and the situation where the region under test exhibits a PCM with at least an ordered eigenvalue smaller than that of a reference covariance. This last setup reflects the physical condition where the backscattering associated with the oil spills leads to a signal, in some eigendirections, weaker than the one gathered from a reference area where the absence of any oil slicks is a priori known. A multifamily generalized likelihood ratio test approach is pursued to come up with an adaptive detector ensuring the constant false alarm rate property. At the analysis stage, the behavior of the new architecture is investigated in comparison with a benchmark (but nonimplementable) structure and some other suboptimum adaptive detectors available in the open literature. This study, which is conducted in the presence of both simulated and real data, confirms the practical effectiveness of the new approach.

In this paper, we address the problem of detecting the signal of interest in the presence of Gaussian clutter with symmetric spectrum. To this end, we exploit the spectral properties of the clutter to transfer the binary hypothesis test problem from complex domain to real domain. Then, we devise and assess a detection strategy based on the so-called two-step Generalized Likelihood Ratio Test (GLRT) design procedure. Finally, a preliminary performance assessment, conducted by resorting to simulated data, has confirmed the effectiveness of the newly proposed detector compared with the traditional state-of-the-art counterparts which ignore the spectrum symmetry.

This letter deals with adaptive radar detection of targets embedded in Gaussian clutter plus range-distributed subspace-structured jamming by exploiting the invariance theory. The class of invariant detectors which ensure the constant false alarm rate property has been characterized by designing the maximal invariant statistic for the studied detection problem. The achievement of this letter is the coincidence of the obtained maximal invariant with that derived assuming range-concentrated jamming.

This letter deals with the problem of adaptive signal detection in partially homogeneous and persymmetric Gaussian disturbance within the framework of invariance theory. First, a suitable group of transformations leaving the problem invariant is introduced and the maximal invariant statistic (MIS) is derived. Then, it is shown that the (two-step) generalized-likelihood ratio test, Rao, and Wald tests can be all expressed in terms of the MIS, thus proving that they all ensure a constant false-alarm rate.

We address adaptive radar detection of targets embedded in clutter characterized by a symmetrically structublack power spectral density (PSD) and persymmetric covariance matrix. At the design stage, such properties are jointly exploited to come up with decision schemes capable of guaranteeing superior detection performances with respect to architectures which incorporate either persymmetry or clutter PSD symmetry. The performance analysis, both on simulated and on real radar data, confirms the superiority of the newly proposed architectures over their natural counterparts which do not take advantage of both the sources of a priori information.

In the present letter we investigate the problem of adaptive detection and range estimation for point-like targets buried in partially homogeneous Gaussian disturbance with unknown covariance matrix. To this end, we jointly exploit the spillover of target energy to consecutive range samples and the oversampling of the received signal. In this context, we design a detector relying on the Generalized Likelihood Ratio Test (GLRT). Remarkably, the new decision scheme ensures the Constant False Alarm Rate (CFAR) property with respect to the unknown disturbance parameters. The performance analysis reveals that it can provide enhanced detection performance compared with its state-of-art counterpart while retaining accurate estimation capabilities of the target position.

In this work we propose an adaptive receiver with enhanced range estimation capabilities, which jointly exploits the over-sampling of the noisy returns and the spillover of target energy to adjacent range samples. To this end, a proper discrete-time model for the received signal is introduced. Then, the Generalized Likelihood Ratio Test (GLRT) is derived and assessed. The performance analysis highlights that better detection performances and increased range estimation accuracies can be achieved exploiting the oversampling at the price of an additional processing cost.

In this letter, we devise an adaptive decision scheme for point-like targets capable of handling the joint presence of homogeneous clutter and structured interference in the primary and secondary data. To this end, we resort to a design procedure based on the method of sieves: the usual generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) is modified constraining the unknown parameters to belong to a suitable subset of the original space ensuring unique solutions for the involved optimizations. Remarkably, the proposed receiver possesses the constant false alarm rate (CFAR) property with respect to the unknown covariance matrix of the unstructured interference. At the analysis stage, closed-form expressions for the false alarm and detection probabilities are derived.

In this work, we devise an adaptive decision scheme with range estimation capabilities for point-like targets in partially homogeneous environments. To this end, we exploit the spillover of target energy to consecutive range samples and synthesize the Generalized Likelihood Ratio Test. The performance analysis, conducted resorting to both simulated data and real recorded datasets, highlights that the newly proposed architecture can guarantee superior detection performance with respect to its competitors while retaining accurate estimation capabilities of the target position.

This letter deals with the problem of adaptive detection in partially-homogeneous Gaussian disturbance with unknown but persymmetric structured covariance matrix. Since no uniformly most powerful test exists for the problem at hand, we devise and assess two detection strategies based on the Rao test and the Wald test design criteria. Remarkably, both detectors ensure the constant false alarm rate property with respect to both the structure of the covariance matrix as well as the power level. The preliminary performance assessment, conducted by resorting to simulated data, has confirmed the effectiveness of the newly proposed detectors.

We propose a two-stage detector consisting of a subspace detector followed by the whitened adaptive beamformer orthogonal rejection test. The performance analysis shows that it possesses the constant false alarm rate property with respect to the unknown co-variance matrix of the noise and that it guarantees a wider range of directivity values with respect to previously proposed two-stage detectors. The probability of false alarm and the probability of detection (for both matched and mismatched signals) have been evaluated by means of numerical integration techniques.

This letter considers adaptive detection of a signal in a nonhomogeneous environment, more precisely under a covariance mismatch between the test vector and the training samples, due to an interference that is not accounted for by the training samples, e.g., a sidelobe target or an under-nulled interference. We assume that the covariance matrices of the test vector and the training samples verify the so-called generalized eigenrelation. Under this assumption, we derive the generalized likelihood ratio test and show that it coincides with Kelly's detector.

In this paper we propose decision schemes to distinguish between the H0hypothesis that range cells under test contain disturbance only (i.e., noise plus interference) and the H1hypothesis that they also contain signal components along a direction which is a priori unknown, but constrained to belong to a given subspace (H) of the observables. The disturbance is modeled in terms of complex normal noise vectors plus deterministic interference assumed to belong to a known subspace (J) of the observables. At the design stage we resort to either the plain generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) or the two-step GLRT-based design procedure. Moreover, we assume that a set of noise only (secondary) data is available. A preliminary performance analysis, conducted by resorting to simulated data, shows that the one-step GLRT performs better than the two-step GLRT-based design procedure

We design and assess adaptive schemes to detect extended and multiple point-like targets embedded in correlated Gaussian noise. Proposed algorithms rely on either the generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) or ad hoc procedures. Such detectors make it possible to get rid of distinct secondary data and guarantee the constant false alarm rate (CFAR) property with respect to the covariance matrix of the disturbance. A preliminary performance assessment, conducted by resorting to simulated data, also in comparison to the so-called modified GLRT (MGLRT) proposed in , has shown that newly introduced CFAR detectors may represent a viable means to deal with uncertain scenarios.