Large scale correlations in low angle terrain screening and clutter visibility

Describes a stochastic low angle terrain effects (SLATE) model, which covers land clutter visibility, terrain screening of targets and the depression angle to both target and clutter, with particular application to low-flying targets under surveillance by a microwave land-based radar system. The SLATE model is non-site-specific, but detailed. It allows radar performance measures such as the mean length of track to be obtained analytically, without averaging large numbers of site-specific simulations or requiring high fidelity terrain data. The trajectories of terrain-following targets are described in terms of ensembles of Markov processes. The main dependencies of the model are: the standard deviation of the terrain height; the correlation length of the terrain height; the height of the radar above the mean terrain level; and the target height and path