Different homogeneity detectors for improving Space-Time Adaptive Radar performance in heterogeneous clutter

Secondary data selection for estimation of the clutter covariance matrix in space-time adaptive processing (STAP) is normally obtained from cells (range rings) in close proximity of the cell under test. The aim of this paper is the analysis of performance improvement of space-time adaptive radars when secondary data selection is obtained by discriminating between quasi-homogeneous areas on the ground which generate clutter with different statistics (i.e. clutter edges including littoral, farmland-wooded hills or rural-urban interfaces). The algorithm presented in this paper, referred to as the different homogeneity detector (DHD), has been tested with simulated data obtained by using a general clutter model and a uniform linear array.