Trimmed geometric mean order statistic CFAR detector for Pareto distributed clutter

Recent investigations have validated the Pareto class of models for radar backscattering from the sea surface for X-band maritime surveillance radar. As such, there has been much interest in the derivation of sliding window detectors, for operation in such clutter, with the constant false alarm rate property. A general expression is derived, allowing the determination of the probability of false alarm for such detectors, based upon a recently introduced invariant statistic. For a specific example of its application, a trimmed geometric mean order statistic constant false alarm rate detector is developed and compared with some recently derived detectors. It will be shown that this new detector can be designed to not only manage interference in the clutter range profile but can be very effective at managing range spread targets.