Polarization-based passive millimeter-wave imaging has been applied in several applications, including material clustering, pattern recognition, and target detection. We present here a general formulation of a metal target detection method called dual linear polarization discriminator (DLPD), utilizing passive millimeter-wave polarimetric imagery. Several potential discriminators are defined, and linear polarization difference ratio (LPDR) is selected and proposed to be a new feature discriminator that is sensitive to material composition and able to reduce ambient radiation effects when detecting target with different material and shape. Furthermore, the detection criterion is verified utilizing the threshold values determined by a statistical analysis of LPDR. Outdoor experiments demonstrate that the proposed detection method is highly effective for detecting a metal target in a complex background.

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