Scanning radar simulation in the maritime environment

Modelling and simulation of radar sea clutter is extremely important to assist with radar system design, evaluate radar detection algorithms and stimulate radar processors during development and testing. In this paper, the key tradeoffs in designing a scanning maritime radar are presented with details of how the radar return can be simulated. The sea clutter model is a compound Gaussian model with the spectrum modelled using the evolving Doppler spectrum model with an appropriate representation of the texture. This is important as the Doppler spectrum plays a key role in determining the statistics that are important for coherent processing. All parameters used in the simulation are determined by empirical models which in turn rely on user defined inputs including sea state, the wind and swell direction and the grazing angle.