Statistical analysis of Monopulse-SAR for CFAR detection of ground moving targets

An efficient approach to achieve ground moving target indication (GMTI) for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is to use the Monopulse-SAR system. This paper examines the statistics of monopulse ratio (MR) for SAR/GMTI model when complex Gaussian clutter-plus-noise is considered. The probability density function (pdf) of MR is analyzed in detail. Especially, the conditional likelihood function of MR under the null hypothesis is given in a closed-form defined by special functions. An automatic constant false-alarm rate (CFAR) detector for moving targets is provided and extended to a multi-MRD form to further improve the final detection performance. Experimental results are presented to examine the detection performance and validate the theoretical analysis.