Herselman, PLDe Wind, HJ2009-03-092009-03-092008-09Herselman, PL and De Wind, HJ. 2008. Improved covariance matrix estimation in spectrally inhomogeneous sea clutter with application to adaptive small boat detection. International Conference on Radar, Adelaide, Australia, 2 - 5 September, pp 69781424423217http://hdl.handle.net/10204/3178International Conference on Radar, Adelaide, Australia, 2 - 5 September 2008Asymptotically optimal coherent detection techniques yield sub-clutter visibility in heavy-tailed sea clutter. The adaptive linear quadratic detector inherently assumes spectral homogeneity for the reference window of the covariance matrix estimator. This paper investigates the validity of this assumption on real data that have been recorded with medium resolution X-band radar. Proving empirically that this basic assumption is the exception rather than the rule, the effects of spectral in homogeneity are investigated. Various improvements to the current estimator and detector are suggested and evaluated. This is specifically applied to the detection of small rigid inflatable boats, with empirical results presented for a range of boat manoeuvres. A specific example highlights the vulnerability of the chosen detector to self-maskingenCovariance matrixSea clutterSpectral inhomogeneityRadarConference PresentationHerselman, P., & De Wind, H. (2008). Improved covariance matrix estimation in spectrally inhomogeneous sea clutter with application to adaptive small boat detection. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/3178Herselman, PL, and HJ De Wind. "Improved covariance matrix estimation in spectrally inhomogeneous sea clutter with application to adaptive small boat detection." (2008): http://hdl.handle.net/10204/3178Herselman P, De Wind H, Improved covariance matrix estimation in spectrally inhomogeneous sea clutter with application to adaptive small boat detection; 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/3178 .TY - Conference Presentation AU - Herselman, PL AU - De Wind, HJ AB - Asymptotically optimal coherent detection techniques yield sub-clutter visibility in heavy-tailed sea clutter. The adaptive linear quadratic detector inherently assumes spectral homogeneity for the reference window of the covariance matrix estimator. This paper investigates the validity of this assumption on real data that have been recorded with medium resolution X-band radar. Proving empirically that this basic assumption is the exception rather than the rule, the effects of spectral in homogeneity are investigated. Various improvements to the current estimator and detector are suggested and evaluated. This is specifically applied to the detection of small rigid inflatable boats, with empirical results presented for a range of boat manoeuvres. A specific example highlights the vulnerability of the chosen detector to self-masking DA - 2008-09 DB - ResearchSpace DP - CSIR KW - Covariance matrix KW - Sea clutter KW - Spectral inhomogeneity KW - Radar LK - https://researchspace.csir.co.za PY - 2008 SM - 9781424423217 T1 - Improved covariance matrix estimation in spectrally inhomogeneous sea clutter with application to adaptive small boat detection TI - Improved covariance matrix estimation in spectrally inhomogeneous sea clutter with application to adaptive small boat detection UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10204/3178 ER -