Airborne threat detection in navy IRST systems

A new algorithm is presented for the detection of airborne targets by means of infrared sensors operating in naval surveillance scenarios. The proposed algorithm consists of two steps: background clutter removal and detection over the residual clutter. The algorithm is fully automatic and its implementation does not require the tuning of any parameter other than the threshold for setting the probability of false alarm. The algorithm performance is investigated by means of a sequence of experimental IR images taken in a typical maritime environment. The results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms a standard detection algorithm specifically tailored to the analysed scenario. A statistical analysis of the experimental data is also performed to validate the hypotheses used to derive the detection algorithm.