Single Ping Clutter Reduction Algorithm Using Statistical Features of Peak Signal to Improve Detection in Active Sonar System

In active sonar system, clutters degrade performance of target detection/tracking and overwhelm sonar operators in ASW (Antisubmarine Warfare). Conventional clutter reduction algorithms using consistency of local peaks are studied in multi-ping data and tracking filter research for active sonar was conducted. However these algorithms cannot classify target and clutters in single ping data. This paper suggests a single ping clutter reduction approach to reduce clutters in mid-frequency active sonar system using echo shape features. The algorithm performance test is conducted using real sea-trial data in heavy clutter density environment. It is confirmed that the number of clutters was reduced by about 80 % over the conventional algorithm while retaining the detection of target.