Exploiting Doppler in Bernoulli Track-Before-Detect

Detection and tracking of weak targets in sea clutter using high-resolution airborne radar is notoriously challenging compared to classical target tracking problems. Recently, an approach using a Bernoulli track-before-detect (TBD) filter has been proposed for an airborne scanning radar in the maritime domain [1]. This work focused on a non-coherent fast scanning mode where the dwell-time (time-on-target) was very short. The current paper explores the benefits of using Doppler information in TBD when the radar is operating in a slower scanning mode. A new TBD filter, which exploits the Doppler information in the form of a point measurement is developed and analysed, with significant improvement demonstrated over the traditional fast scanning operation.