MTI clutter spike rejector with interclutter visibility

A new technique is described for rejecting MTI clutter spikes generated by the combination of amplitude limiting and antenna beam movement. These spikes degrade the detection performance even though the problem is mitigated by combinations of wide dynamic range receivers and processors, coherent filters with separate CFARs, and video integration. Clutter spikes are particularly troublesome when small target detection is required in urban or littoral clutter. The technique described uses a ratio detection and counting scheme for rejecting the clutter spikes. This spike rejector employs a Doppler ratio detector which provides improved target detection through interclutter visibility