New target fluctuation models and their experimental

In this paper we address the design, the analysis, and the experimental validation of statistical models for the description of target fluctuations. We first review some classical distributions commonly employed for the statistical characterization of the target amplitude returns. Then we focus on the shadowed rice and the two state Rayleigh-Chi target models discussing their physical justification and relevant analytical properties. We also study the capabilities of the considered models to fit real target data collected by the McMaster IPIX radar in 1993. Finally we assess the performance of the optimum detector (in the Newman-Pearson sense) for targets with uniformly distributed phases in the presence of shadowed rice and two state Rayleigh-Chi fluctuations providing analytical expressions for the detection probability.