Modeling of Non-homogeneous Sea Clutter with Texture Modulated Doppler Spectra

Regarded as the radar scattering from dynamic ocean surfaces, the sea clutter plays a significant role in the development of marine radar. However, modeling the sea clutter becomes a challenging problem due to the complex characterizations of ocean hydrodynamics, especially for the harsh marine environment. To make the models more realistic, a novel simulation method is proposed to generate non-homogeneous sea clutters for high-resolution radars, by taking the radar parameters and sea states into consideration. Based on the proposed method, the simulated sea clutters present range-varying Doppler spectra, which are modulated by spatially correlated gamma texture. Since the simulation results agree well with the theoretical values and actual sea clutter characteristics, the validity and reliability of the proposed approach are verified for practical senarios.