Target detection in ground clutter with stepped frequency CFAR detector at millimeter-wave

This paper presents a constant false alarm rate (CFAR) stationary target detection scheme in ground clutter at millimeter-wave frequencies. The proposed scheme makes use of the clutter decorrelation bandwidth considered in the stepped-frequency radar system and the concept of a CFAR matched filter for the received data projection onto the signal and clutter subspace. Therefore, the scheme achieves the CFAR, where the knowledge of the clutter covariance matrix is not needed preliminarily. In order to investigate the detection performance, we carried out experiments with a W-band stepped-frequency polarimetric radar system at 94 GHz with a bandwidth of about 300 MHz. The results are discussed and compared with conventional CFAR detectors.