This paper proposes a multi-scale rotation-invariant haar-like (MSRI-HL) feature integrated convolutional neural network (MSRIHL-CNN)-based ship detection algorithm of the multiple-target environment in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery. Usually, ship detection includes preprocessing, prescreening, discrimination, and classification. Among them, prescreening and discrimination are the most two important stages so that they catch great intention. Based on our previous work, we propose a truncated-clutter-statistics-based joint, constant false alarm rate (CFAR) detector (TCS-JCFAR) for ship target prescreening in the multiple-target environment. TCS-JCFAR greatly enhances the prescreening rate in the multiple-target environment while achieving a low observed FAR. In the discrimination stage, conventional CNN extracts the deep features (high-level features); however, it will lose the local texture and edge information (low-level features) which are of great significance for target discrimination. Hence, the MSRI-HL features are used to represent the multi-scale, rotation-invariant texture, and edge information that conventional CNN fails to capture. The extracted low-level MSRI-HL features and the high-level deep features are optimally fused to a multi-layered feature vector. Finally, the multi-layered feature vector is fed into a typical support vector machine (SVM) classifier for ship target discrimination. The proposed MSRIHL-CNN combines the low-level texture and edge features and the high-level deep features; moreover, they are optimally fused to fully represent the ship targets. Undoubtedly, MSRIHL-CNN has better discrimination performance. The superiority of the proposed TCS-JCFAR-based prescreener and MSRIHL-CNN-based discriminator is validated on the Chinese Gaofen-3 SAR imagery.

It is well-known that the convolutional neural network (CNN) is an effective method for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) target classification. In the convolutional layer of CNN, convolutional kernels of different sizes can extract different feature information of the target. The small-size kernel can extract the local texture feature information, and the large-size kernel can extract the global contour feature information. Traditional CNN methods usually use fixed-size kernels for convolution, and they generally lose part of the target’s feature information, resulting in the inaccurate classification of the SAR targets. This article proposes a novel CNN model based on multikernel-size feature fusion (MKSFF-CNN) for SAR target classification. MKSFF-CNN designs a convolutional methodology with a multichannel parallel topology, it uses convolutional kernels of different sizes to extract the multikernel-size deep features of the SAR target, and then, these features are fused in an optimal way to acquire the lowest loss. Moreover, MKSFF-CNN concatenates the fused features extracted by the convolutional layers of different dimensions to achieve the finest classification. MKSFF-CNN greatly elevates the feature representation completeness of the SAR targets so that more useful feature information can be exploited for SAR target classification. Undoubtedly, MKSFF-CNN can achieve a better classification performance compared with traditional CNN models with a fixed kernel size. The superiority of MKSFF-CNN is validated on the moving and stationary target acquisition and recognition (MSTAR) dataset with the detailed objective and subjective evaluation.

A robust constant false alarm rate (RCFAR) detector based on bilateral-trimmed-statistics (BTS-RCFAR) with a closed-form solution is proposed. BTS-RCFAR aims at improving the detection performance in complex ocean scenes such as the multiple-target environment, off-shore, oil-spilled ocean area, etc. In these circumstances, the clutter samples are often contaminated by the outliers. Consequently, the estimated parameters are biased, and the probability density function modeling of the clutter is not accurate. Detection performance deteriorates with either decrease of the detection rate or increase of the false alarm rate. Inspired by Sigma filter, BTS-RCFAR proposes a bilateral-thresholds-based strategy to automatically trim the samples in the local reference window, both the high-intensity and the low-intensity outliers are eliminated. Furthermore, the trimming depth is adaptively derived according to the homogeneity of the clutter backgrounds, where the outliers are completely removed and the real clutter samples can be greatly sustained. Maximum-likelihood-estimator with a closed-form solution is used for parameter estimation using the bilateral-trimmed samples, and log-normal model of the sea clutter can be accurately established. Finally, the test cell is detected given the specified probability of false alarm rate. BTS-RCFAR improves the detection performance in complex ocean scenes by elevating the detection rate and reducing the false alarm rate. Both simulated data and real data are used for validation.

This paper proposes an outliers-robust constant false-alarm rate (OR-CFAR) detector of Gaussian clutter based on the truncated-maximum-likelihood estimator (TMLE) in SAR imagery. The proposed method aims at elevating the detection performance in multiple-target environment, where the sea clutter samples are often contaminated by the interfering target pixels, the azimuth ambiguities, and the breakwater. As a consequence, the parameters used for statistical modeling are over-estimated, resulting in a degradation of the CFAR detection rate. Inspired by the traditional two-parameter CFAR (TP-CFAR) detector of Gaussian clutter, OR-CFAR designs an adaptive threshold-based clutter truncation method to eliminate the high-intensity outliers from the clutter samples in the local reference window, and the probability density function (PDF) of the sea clutter can be accurately modeled through the newly raised TMLE. Furthermore, the optimal truncation depth used for clutter truncation and PDF modeling is evaluated and selected properly to get the best detection results. The OR-CFAR greatly enhances the CFAR detection rate in multiple-target environment, and it is computationally simple and efficient, which has a great application value. The Chinese Gaofen-3 SAR data are used for experiments to show the better detection performance of OR-CFAR.

Traditional constant false alarm rate (CFAR) detectors suffer probability of detection (PD) degradation influenced by the outliers such as interfering ship targets, side lobes, and ghosts, especially in crowded harbors and busy shipping lines. In this paper, a new two-parameter CFAR detector based on adaptively truncated clutter statistics (TS-LNCFAR) is proposed. The new two-parameter CFAR detector uses log-normal as the statistical model; by adaptive-threshold-based clutter truncation in the background window, the outliers are removed from the clutter samples, while the real clutter is preserved to the largest degree. The log-normal model is accurately built using the truncated clutter statistics through the maximum-likelihood estimator. Compared with traditional CFAR detectors, the parameter estimation is more accurate, and TS-LNCFAR has a better false alarm regulation property and a high PD in a multiple-target environment. Furthermore, the parameter estimation and threshold calculation do not need iterative numerical calculation, and TS-LNCFAR has a high computational efficiency. The superiority of the proposed TS-LNCFAR detector is validated on the multilook Envisat-ASAR and TerraSAR-X data.

This article proposes an automatic identification system (AIS) data aided Rayleigh constant false alarm rate (AIS-RCFAR) ship detection algorithm of multiple-target environment in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. This method aims to improve the detection performance in complex environment with the aid of AIS data. Traditional CFAR detectors generally use all the samples in the local background window for parameter estimation. However, in multiple-target environment, clutter edges and transition areas, due to the interference of the high-intensity outliers, such as target pixels, ghosts, and other interfering pixels, the parameters are often overestimated, causing degradation of the detection performance. Aiming at solving this problem, AIS-RCFAR designs an adaptive-threshold based clutter trimming method with an adaptive-trimming-depth aided by AIS data to effectively eliminate the high-intensity outliers in the local background window while greatly sustaining the real sea clutter samples. Maximum-likelihood-estimator with a closed-form solution is proposed to precisely estimate the parameters using the adaptively-trimmed clutter samples, the probability density function of the sea clutter following Rayleigh distribution can be accurately modeled. AIS-RCFAR greatly enhances the detection rate in both homogeneous and nonhomogeneous multiple-target environment, it also achieves a very low false alarm rate. In addition, the whole procedure of AIS-RCFAR is simple and efficient. Simulated data and real SAR images with corresponding matched AIS data are used for experiments to validate the superiority and feasibility of AIS-RCFAR.