Characteristics of First Order Sea Clutter for High Frequency Hybrid Sky Surface Wave Radar

High-frequency hybrid sky-surface wave radar (HF HSSWR) has the potential for large-scale environmental monitoring. However, the performance of the HSSWR for sea states monitoring degrades due to the distortion of radar echoes induced by the uneven ionosphere. In this paper, the computational formula of the Bragg frequency in the hybrid sky-surface propagation mode is derived using spatial scattering theory instead of predigesting a bistatic model, and the broadening effect induced by the ocean current and ionospheric irregularity is investigated.