Simulation of Radar Sea Clutter

Realistic simulation of radar sea clutter is extremely important to stimulate radar processors during development and testing, generate realistic displays in radar trainers, and evaluate radar detection algorithms. A simulated signal must reproduce as faithfully as possible the statistical characteristics that are present in real data, including the mean backscatter, amplitude statistics, short-term temporal correlation (including that represented by the Doppler spectra), and any spatial or longer-term temporal variations. It must also reflect the chosen radar parameters, collection geometry, and model the effect of platform motion if the data is being collected by an airborne radar system. This talk will describe a number of approaches for generating hi-fidelity radar sea clutter using statistical models and demonstrate how they compare against data collected from both ground and airborne platforms.