Edge clutter rejection for PPI radar images

Abstract

Purpose

Incoherent primary radar is an applicable means for security surveillance of low-altitude airspace. An experimental airspace surveillance radar system has been developed for such applications. Target detector based on radar images is a powerful technique for the system. The main difficulty in designing such a detector is the rejection of heavy edge clutter for the plane position indicator (PPI) radar images after background subtraction.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper proposes an edge clutter rejection (ECR) detector with spatial characteristics to detect target instead of sheer threshold segmentation.

Findings

The paper chooses the optimal parameter values for the ECR detector and compares it with the existing techniques. Detection results show that the proposed detector achieves higher probability of detection with low false alarm rate, outperforming the fixed-threshold detector and the popular constant false alarm rate detectors. The ECR detector also presents limited computational cost due to its concentration on the pixels detected by the fixed-threshold algorithm with low threshold.

Practical implications

The aviation security of low-altitude airspace can be greatly increased by designing affordable airspace surveillance radar system.

Originality/value

The paper presents critical techniques for clutter rejection with PPI images, which is a significant part of the surveillance system.

Citation

Chen, W. and Ning, H. (2014), "Edge clutter rejection for PPI radar images", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 86 No. 1, pp. 19-25. https://doi.org/10.1108/AEAT-05-2012-0063