IMPROVED ANTI-SUBMARINE WARFARE DISPLAY

CURRENT SONAR TIME-BEARING DISPLAYS SHOW A SIGNIFICANT DETECTION PERFORMANCE DEGRADATION ATTRIBUTED TO THEIR NORMALIZATION PROCESSING. THIS DEGRADATION IS CAUSED BY THE INABILITY OF NORMALIZATION ALGORITHMS IN CURRENT OPERATIONAL SONAR SYSTEMS TO SIMULTANEOUSLY ACHIEVE NEARLY OPTIMAL NORMALIZATION ROBUSTNESS AND DETECTION SENSITIVITY. THIS DEGRADATION IS AN INHERENT FEATURE OF THE NORMALIZATION ALGORITHM STRUCTURES EXISTENT IN CURRENT OPERATIONAL SONAR SYSTEMS. FURTHERMORE, THIS DEGRADATION IS STEADILY WORSENING IN OPERATIONAL SONAR SYSTEMS BECAUSE OF THE RESPONSE OF THE SONAR SYSTEM DESIGNER TO THE CONTINUOUSLY QUIETENING THREAT. THIS RESPONSE IS TO BUILD SONARS WITH INCREASED ARRAY GAIN, WHICH THEREFORE "SEE" MORE INTERFERING TARGETS. IN MANY SCENARIOS, THE DETECTION PERFORMANCE INCREASE PROVIDED BY THE INCREASED ARRAY GAIN IS LARGELY OFFSET BY THE DEGRADATION CAUSED BY POOR NORMALIZER PERFORMANCE. THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE OF THE PHASE I EFFORT IS TO DEMONSTRATE THE NEW NORMALIZATION ALGORITHMS CAN PROVIDE SIGNIFICANT DETECTION PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS FOR SONAR TIME-BEARING DISPLAY APPLICATIONS ON A VARIETY OF OPERATIONALLY REALISTIC NAVY SUPPLIED AND CONTRACTOR GENERATED REAL AND SIMULATED TEST DATA CASES. TEST CANDIDATES WILL BE CHOSEN FROM THE FAMILIES OF CENSORED MEAN-LEVEL DETECTOR (CMLD) AND SPLIT-AVERAGE-EXCLUDE-AVERAGE NORMALIZERS BECAUSE OF THEIR EXTENSIVELY PROVEN ROBUST DETECTION PERFORMANCE IN SPECTRAGRAM AND RADAR DISPLAY APPLICATIONS.