STATISTICS OF SIMULATED OCEAN CLUTTER

The statistical description of ocean clutter, which is made use of by the modern clutter suppression algorithms, is examined for sea states 0 and 4, for a grazing angle range 0.14 degrees less than or equal to theta(gr) less than or equal to 89.5 degrees, for all polarizations, a nd for upwind and crosswind returns. The data for statistical descript ion are obtained by a radar simulation program in which the electromag netic pulses are traced in a user defined radar environment. In this s imulation environment, the returns which are backscattered from the oc ean surface are recorded individually along with their polarization, a mplitude, phase, arrival time and Doppler shift. Based on the likeliho od ratios of commonly used Rayleigh, Lognormal, Weibull and K-distribu tion families, the best fitting distributions to the observed data are chosen. When the results obtained are compared with those available i n the literature, a good agreement is observed. Due to the limitations of experimental studies, the data necessary for the statistical descr iption of the amplitude and the power of clutter are either not availa ble or scarce for various sea states, grazing angles, polarizations an d wind directions. For those cases where the statistical description i s not available in the literature, the simulation program provides an inexpensive and reliable environment to obtain the best fitting distri butions, which is an important ingredient of the modern clutter suppre ssion algorithms.