Ship wake CFAR detection algorithm in SAR images based on length normalized scan

Ship wake detection can facilitate ship detection and ship motion parameters retrieval. In this paper, we propose a novel constant false alarm rate (CFAR) ship wake detection algorithm in SAR images based on length normalized scan method. As we all know, range component of ship´s movement leads to azimuth offset in SAR images. The start point of wake should be located near the ship in the azimuth. According to this physical facts, length normalized scan is performed on line which may be a wake. By means of linear integral and length normalization technology, linear feature detection is transformed to point detection. Then the probability model in the scan domain is constructed to implement CFAR detection. Different resolution real SAR images are used to validate our proposed method. Experimental results show that this algorithm is effective for ship wake detection and can extract ship´s velocity with good accuracy.