TABLE OF CONTENTS Giving radar detection respectability using mathematical statistics
Understanding the characteristics of noise and assigning it a useful probability density
Characteristics of signal and noise and the signal-to-noise ratio
Probabilities of detection ( P d) and false alarm ( P fa) and their usage
Analogy to hypothesis testing
Some techniques to enhance radar detection performance
Some well known tracking approaches
Angle tracking
The concept of the monopulse angle tracker
Range tracking
Range rate tracking
Target state trackers
Assume that radars having some of the parameters described in the preceding chapters can be built and operated. A vitally important question is how the operator decides when he sees a target. He has found out quickly from experience that he can turn up the gain on his radar display and completely fill his field of view with false targets (noise), or he can turn down the gain and eliminate all targets. How does he decide where to set the threshold to optimize his ability to detect? Likewise, how do we set the threshold for the automatic detection systems used by the majority of modern radar systems?
An experienced operator becomes skillful at setting the gain on a radar display. Fortunately, there is also a quantitative way to evaluate what the settings should be so that targets can be detected automatically and the operator informed by the simple expedient of a light...
