Generalized Closed-Form Expressions for CFAR Detection in Heterogeneous Environment

The purpose of this letter is the derivation of generalized closed forms of the probability of detection (Pd) and the probability of false alarm (Pfa) governing the statistical detection of targets in heterogeneous environment. Simplified general expressions, which can be used to evaluate the performance of a family of constant false alarm rate (CFAR) detectors, are obtained. A performance analysis is performed, which compares the results of the derived expressions and those for cell averaging CFAR, order statistics CFAR, automatic censored mean level CFAR, and Anderson-Darling CFAR detection schemes under different signal-to-noise ratio and interfering targets scenarios. It is found that the derived expressions closely reflect the behavior of both detectors and model other potential detectors that are particularly more robust in the presence of severe interfering targets.