A statistical model for radar target detection in clutter

The development of a statistical model is reported that describes the radar backscatter characteristics of a point target located in a non-Rayleigh, correlated, sea clutter environment. The model is based on the analysis of experimental observations of forward and backscattering from the sea surface, and hence, has the attractive feature of being related to the physical mechanisms governing the scattering processes. Numerical computations involved in calculating the distribution of electric field (of the signal in clutter) are described and sets of representative results pertaining to the single pulse detection are presented. The extension of the model to include pulse-to-pulse and scan-to-scan correlation effects in both target and clutter signals is also discussed