Coherent radar processing in sea clutter environments, part 2: adaptive normalised matched filter versus adaptive matched filter performance

The maritime surveillance performance of the adaptive normalised matched filter (ANMF) detector structure against real multichannel, medium grazing angle, radar sea clutter data processed via space-time adaptive processing (STAP) is assessed and shown to exhibit constant false alarm rate (CFAR) performance characteristics which diverge from predictions over a large segment of the endo-clutter spectrum. The non-CFAR behaviour is linked to the existence of a two-component clutter model composed of contributions from Bragg and fast scattering mechanisms.