Abstract: To reduce the influence of ground clutter on object detection and tracking for airborne EO systems, a small moving object detection and tracking method is proposed. First, invariable features of ground clutter, such as edges and corners in images, are extracted for image registration to compensate movement of ego-motion imaging systems. Then, the candidate objects in images are detected in the way of frame difference and screened out through Gabor filters in the rough. Finally, the tracking association and cumulative sum method and velocity limitation objects are introduced to detect real target in field of view of airborne EO systems.