Abstract: The application describes digital signal processing of radar video signals to provide an optimum display. Three interacting components of the system are further described in detail: a global mean estimating circuit, a statistical analyzer circuit, and a dynamic range compression circuit. The global mean estimating circuit determines the mean of the amplitude distribution of video signals over a wide section of the display as opposed to a local mean of signals. A local mean of signals is the mean of the amplitude distribution of video signals occurring in the near vicinity of a point on the display. The statistical analyzer circuit evaluates the amplitude distribution of video signal samples and controls the gain of the signal path so that the variance of the sampled amplitude distribution follows the variance of a model distribution. The dynamic range compression circuit functions to compress the range of amplitude distribution in a manner to provide maximum information from the display.