Adaptive Fusion Detection for Dual-Radar with Non-Identical Clutter Distributions

ZHOU Baoyi; YANG Yong; YANG boyu

doi:10.11999/JEIT260616

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ZHOU Baoyi, YANG Yong, YANG boyu. Adaptive Fusion Detection for Dual-Radar with Non-Identical Clutter Distributions[J]. Journal of Electronics & Information Technology. doi: 10.11999/JEIT260616

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ZHOU Baoyi, YANG Yong, YANG boyu. Adaptive Fusion Detection for Dual-Radar with Non-Identical Clutter Distributions[J]. Journal of Electronics & Information Technology. doi: 10.11999/JEIT260616

ZHOU Baoyi, YANG Yong, YANG boyu. Adaptive Fusion Detection for Dual-Radar with Non-Identical Clutter Distributions[J]. Journal of Electronics & Information Technology. doi: 10.11999/JEIT260616

Citation:

ZHOU Baoyi, YANG Yong, YANG boyu. Adaptive Fusion Detection for Dual-Radar with Non-Identical Clutter Distributions[J]. Journal of Electronics & Information Technology. doi: 10.11999/JEIT260616

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Adaptive Fusion Detection for Dual-Radar with Non-Identical Clutter Distributions

doi: 10.11999/JEIT260616 cstr: 32379.14.JEIT260616

College of Electronic Science and Technology, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, China

Funds: The National Natural Science Foundation of China (62171447)

Received Date: 2026-05-14
Accepted Date: 2026-07-29
Rev Recd Date: 2026-07-29

Available Online: 2026-08-08

Abstract

Abstract

Objective Small sea-surface targets, characterized by low radar cross-sections, generate echoes easily marked by intense sea clutter, resulting in extremely low signal-to-clutter ratios (SCR). Constrained by single operating frequency bands and fixed observation angles, single radar systems present notable performance bottlenecks, whereas multi-radar collaborative detection offers an effective solution to this limitation. Existing multi-radar fusion detection algorithms are derived under two ideal premises: identical clutter distributions and equal SCRs across radar nodes, assumptions that rarely hold in practice. In practice, discrepancies in radar parameters (frequency band, range resolution, and grazing angle) result in distinct statistical characteristics of sea clutter. Furthermore, target RCS fluctuates with observation azimuth and operating frequency, yielding inconsistent SCRs for the same target across different radars and inducing severe model mismatch in traditional fusion detectors. To address the coexistence of heterogeneous clutter distributions and unequal SCRs, this paper proposes a Neyman-Pearson (NP) criterion-based dual-radar adaptive fusion detector, termed NP-AFD, for Rayleigh and Weibull sea clutter backgrounds. Methods Amplitude distribution fitting is conducted on measured S-band and X-band sea clutter datasets using five mainstream models: Rayleigh, Lognormal, Weibull, Gamma, and K-distribution. Fitting accuracy is evaluated via the mean square error (MSE) of the probability density function (PDF) and complementary cumulative distribution function (CCDF), as listed in Table 1. Based on the fitting results, local optimal test statistics are derived separately for Rayleigh and Weibull clutter backgrounds. As the two radars operate independently, the joint likelihood ratio equals the product of their individual likelihood ratios. The optimal fusion statistic is formulated as a weighted sum of the two local statistics, where adaptive weights are determined by real-time estimated SCRs, and radar channels with higher SCRs are assigned larger weights. Closed-form analytical expressions linking the false alarm probability and detection probability to the decision threshold are also derived. Results and Discussions Monte Carlo simulations over 10⁵ independent trials verify the validity of all derived closed-form expressions. Under identical SCRs for both radars, the simulated detection curves of single radars and NP-AFD show strong agreement with theoretical curves (Fig. 3). Compared with decision-level OR and AND fusion, NP-AFD consistently achieves the highest detection probability, with OR fusion ranking second and AND fusion delivering the worst. Performance gain analysis shows that NP-AFD maintains a positive gain over the better-performing single radar across all tested Weibull shape parameters. In contrast, OR fusion exhibits negative gain at low SCRs under small Weibull shape parameters, while AND fusion maintains negative gain across the full SCR range (Fig. 4). The simulated false alarm rate is stably controlled around the preset value of 10^–3 (Fig. 5). Furthermore, two-dimensional joint evaluation is performed with independently varying SCRs of the two radars, and detection probability contours are plotted with the two radar SCRs as coordinates (Fig. 6). The results demonstrate that NP-AFD requires lower SCR combinations to achieve the same detection probability, compared with OR and AND fusion. Experiments on measured sea clutter data further verify that NP-AFD yields the highest detection probability among all compared methods (Fig. 7, Fig. 8), and its detection performance shows agreement with theoretical predictions (Fig. 9, Fig. 10). Conclusions This paper addresses the challenges of non-identical clutter distributions and varying SCRs in multi-radar collaborative detection. Based on the Neyman-Pearson criterion, a dual-radar adaptive fusion detection method, NP-AFD, is derived for Rayleigh and Weibull clutter backgrounds. The proposed method provides closed-form expressions for fusion weights, decision threshold, and detection probability. Theoretical derivations, simulations, and experiments on measured sea clutter data consistently demonstrate that NP-AFD outperforms OR fusion and AND fusion under arbitrary SCR combinations, delivering superior detection performance and robustness.
- sea clutter,
- multi-radar fusion detection,
- non-identical clutter distributions,
- NP-AFD

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References(23)

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