The first maritime surveillance radars in World War II quickly
discovered that returns from the sea, soon to be known as sea clutter,
were often the limiting factor when attempting to detect small targets
while controlling false alarms. This remains true for modern radars,
where the detection of small, slow moving targets on a rough sea surface
remains one of the main drivers for maritime radar design, particularly
in the development of detection processing.
The design, development and testing of radar signal processing for
maritime surveillance requires a very detailed understanding of the
characteristics of radar sea clutter and of the combined target and
clutter returns. This book provides an updated and comprehensive review
of the latest research into radar sea clutter and detection methods for
targets in sea clutter. The emphasis is on understanding the
characteristics of radar sea clutter as observed with different radars,
viewing geometries and environmental conditions. This understanding is
assisted by the development of mathematical models that are used in the
radar design process.
In recent years there has been an increased interest in operating at
higher altitudes, resulting in the sea surface being illuminated with
larger grazing angles than used in traditional airborne surveillance
platforms or ground-based systems. There has also been significant
research into bistatic operation, including passive radars using
illuminators of opportunity. The use of coherent and multi-aperture
systems in maritime radar are also of increasing interest and these new
application areas are also covered in this book.
