Signal detection in a nonstationary environment reformulated as an adaptive pattern classification problem

Concerns the improved detection of a nonstationary target signal in a nonstationary background. Ways to deal with the issue of nonstationarity are discussed, starting with Loeve's probabilistic theory of stationarity processes (1946, 1963). Three important tools emerge: the dynamic spectrum, the Wigner-Ville distribution as an instantaneous estimate of the dynamic spectrum and the Loeve spectrum. Procedures for the estimation of these spectra …