Radar detection sensitivity as a function of target dimensionality

Preliminary experiments have been conducted comparing the detection sensitivities of zero-dimensional (0-D) and two-dimensional (2-D) displays, and of 2-D and three-dimensional (3-D) images. The 0-D scenes were created by adding a signal of known strength to a randomly selected pixel in a field of ground clutter. The clutter was from farmland, and was obtained in ground-to-ground imaging experiments with the 83 m X-band VFRC array. The 0-D and 2-D comparison is shown. The target-to-clutter ratio (TCR) is 2 dB. The 2-D and 3-D comparison is given. Exactly the same clutter and targets were used, although they were suitably randomized to avoid providing helpful clues to the observers. The ratio of the total target energy to the total clutter energy is unambiguous and identical in the two cases. The performances are the averages of the scores of eight observers, each of whom viewed 120 images. The 3-D detection sensitivity is about 7 dB better. The net gain in detection sensitivity from 0-D to 3-D is 18 dB