Characterization of High Grazing Angle X-Band Sea-Clutter Doppler Spectra

Collection of radar sea-clutter is typically performed from the top of a cliff looking out to sea, as it is relatively simple and inexpensive. This constrains the radar look direction with respect to the wind and limits the grazing angle. To improve our understanding at high grazing angles in the range 15° to 45°, the Defence Science and Technology Organisation´s Ingara airborne X-band fully polarimetric radar has been used to collect 12 days worth of sea-clutter data. It has previously been shown that Walker´s mean Doppler spectrum model is not suitable at these grazing angles; hence, a new two-component model is proposed that captures both the slow Bragg component and the fast non-Bragg component of the radar backscatter. A temporal decorrelation model is then presented that can be used to provide realistic performance prediction modeling.