A study of performances of multipath height estimation algorithm for marine target imaging

In this paper, a new method is proposed to retrieve target reflectors heights for maritime surveillance applications. Multipath propagation over sea surface is used to retrieve the height information for each target reflectors. Firstly, radar raw data with multipath propagation are simulated. The back-scattered electric field from a marine scene is predicted with physical models for the environment and the target. The scene is made of given wind conditions, a linear sea surface and a boat, as a set of point reflectors. Multipath propagation is included with the so-called Four-Path Model. Secondly, height estimation of target reflectors is realized by estimating temporal delays between neighbouring paths of the multipath propagation pattern. Performances of the height estimation algorithm for only one reflector are studied with regards to noise levels.