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However, detecting small targets within heavy sea clutter environments remains challenging. Existing methods often fail to deliver satisfactory performance in the presence of substantial clutter interference. This paper analyzes the spatial\u2013temporal appearance characteristics of small targets and sea clutter. Based on this analysis, we propose a novel detection method based on the appearance stable isotropy measure (ASIM). First, the original images are processed using the Top-Hat transformation to obtain the salient regions. Next, a preliminary threshold operation is employed to extract the candidate targets from these salient regions, forming a candidate target array image. Third, to distinguish between small targets and sea clutter, we introduce two characteristics: the gradient histogram equalization measure (GHEM) and the local optical flow consistency measure (LOFCM). GHEM evaluates the isotropy of the candidate targets by examining their gradient histogram equalization, while LOFCM assesses their appearance stability based on local optical flow consistency. To effectively combine the complementary information provided by GHEM and LOFCM, we propose ASIM as a fusion characteristic, which can effectively enhance the real target. Finally, a threshold operation is applied to determine the final targets. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method exhibits superior comprehensive performance compared to baseline methods.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s23249838","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,12,18]],"date-time":"2023-12-18T11:28:07Z","timestamp":1702898887000},"page":"9838","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Maritime Infrared Small Target Detection Based on the Appearance Stable Isotropy Measure in Heavy Sea Clutter Environments"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"23","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6321-467X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Fan","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Electronic and Optical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China"},{"name":"Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Spectral Imaging and Intelligent Sense, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Weixian","family":"Qian","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Electronic and Optical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China"},{"name":"Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Spectral Imaging and Intelligent Sense, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ye","family":"Qian","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Electronic and Optical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China"},{"name":"Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Spectral Imaging and Intelligent Sense, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9298-1958","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Chao","family":"Ma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Electronic and Optical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China"},{"name":"Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Spectral Imaging and Intelligent Sense, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3617-3478","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"He","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Electronic and Optical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China"},{"name":"Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Spectral Imaging and Intelligent Sense, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4054-7898","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jiajie","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Electronic and Optical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China"},{"name":"Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Spectral Imaging and Intelligent Sense, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4983-3180","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Minjie","family":"Wan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Electronic and Optical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China"},{"name":"Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Spectral Imaging and Intelligent Sense, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Kan","family":"Ren","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Electronic and Optical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China"},{"name":"Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Spectral Imaging and Intelligent Sense, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,12,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"483","DOI":"10.1080\/09500340.2023.2273564","article-title":"Robust noise hybrid active contour model for infrared image segmentation using orientation column filters","volume":"70","author":"Zhang","year":"2023","journal-title":"J. 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