Characteristic study of ionospheric clutter in high-frequency over the horizon surface wave radar

The presence of ionospheric clutter in high-frequency over the horizon surface wave radar may extremely affect the performance of radar system and degrade the capability of detecting target. The characteristic analysis of ionospheric clutter is the foundation of studying method to suppress ionospheric clutter. By using the MUSIC algorithm to analyze plentiful radar echoes data, directivity characteristic of several major kinds of ionospheric clutter has been summarized and the superposition situation that two kinds of ionospheric clutter exist at the same altitude has been discussed, moreover, the pertinence between directivity characteristic of ionospheric clutter and the working frequency has been studied. All these works provide convenience for advancing and realizing ionospheric clutter suppression methods based on directivity characteristic of ionospheric clutter.