Detection of low observable targets within sea clutter by structure function based multifractal analysis

Sea clutter is the backscattered returns from a patch of the sea surface illuminated by a radar pulse. Robust detection of targets within sea clutter is of significant importance to our coastal and national security, to navigation safety, and to environmental monitoring. However, no simple and reliable methods for detecting targets within sea clutter have been proposed. We apply the structure function based multifractal theory to analyze 392 sea clutter datasets measured under various sea conditions. The method developed is mathematically rigorous, conceptually elegant, computationally fast, and, practically, easily implementable. Our results demonstrate that the method can robustly detect low observable objects within sea clutter.