Sea spikes: the empirical dependence of K-distribution parameters on system and environmental parameters

During July-August 1993 the LOGAN (Low Grazing Angle) marine surveillance radar experiment was conducted at the Chesapeake Light Tower off Virginia Beach, Virginia. The authors have begun the analysis of the sea-clutter data at X-band for 4-m range resolution. The data has been analyzed in terms of the K-distribution. These early results are analyzed for noise contamination and self-consistency. The uncertainty in the shape parameter is larger than anticipated and not understood at present. The only certain trend is that the values of the shape parameter are smaller (spikier behavior) for HH-pol than for VV-pol.