A novel laboratory design of a passive-imaging target recognition system operating under clutter

To pchieve desired levels of operational performance, air and ground target surveillance systems require enhanced capabilities for identifying targets within the surveillance space. The objective of this study is to present a novel experimental laboratory design of a passive-illumination target recognition system. Polarimetric Exploratory Data Analysis (pEDA) has been applied for the detection and discrimination of targets in the presence of cluttered media, as well as for clutter characterization. The outcome of this study indicates that fusion of (pEDA) and Stokes parameters lead to reliable Figures-of-Merit (FOM)s that can be used as powerful tools for image analysis, characterization, and discrimination of cluttered targets, under passive illumination.