Fractal approach for sea clutter generation

Clutter is obtained by applying physical optics to a sea surface described by a fractal model. This approach gives two interesting advantages. It is p ossible to control sea, radar and geometry parameters so reproducing a real istic scenario in which the clutter signal is generated. The main drawback of the clutter stochastic models which generate statistical clutter-like ra ndom sequences without directly accounting for the operating conditions in which this clutter is expected, is overcome. Secondly, the fractal nature o f the sea clutter is intrinsically taken into account through the fractal c haracterisation of the sea surface. This aspect leads to a rigorous theoret ical study on the fractal nature of the sea clutter and is also useful in n ew remote sensing research concerning fractal analysis of clutter for class ification and detection purposes. The clutter generator was finally validat ed by statistical analysis of the output data. The results show a statistic al behaviour comparable with that obtained from experimental data in the li terature.