The problem of enhancing and detecting target in a sequence of images recorded by a long-range infrared sensor is investigated. To highlight the difference between warm object and background, a new algorithm of infrared image enhancement based on local textural features is presented. To improve the speed and accuracy of target detection, the relative information among sequential images is used to detect and track the target at the same time. Experimental results show that the enhancing algorithm can highlight the warm objects and depress the background and improve the speed and accuracy of target detection.