Effects of K distributed sea clutter and multipath on radar detection of low altitude sea surface targets

Sea clutter and multipath scattering affect the detection performance of sea surveillance radar simultaneously when the radar detects low altitude target over the sea. In this study, the effects of K distributed sea clutter and multipath on radar detection performance for low altitude sea surface targets are analysed. First, the probability density function of the multipath power propagation factor is derived by taking specular and diffuse reflections into account. Based on this, mathematical expressions of radar detection and false alarm probabilities in K distributed sea clutter and multipath are further derived. The radar detection performances in various K distributed sea clutter and multipath circumstances by simulation are presented, and the impacts of K distributed clutter and multipath on radar detection performance are analysed.