A time domain examination of spikey sea clutter

Microwave radar scatter from the sea surface at small grazing angles and moderate resolutions often exhibits a behavior which is termed as being "spikey" or composed of "sea spikes". Sea spikes appear to the radar as sporadic target like echoes which are localized in range and angle and which exhibit strong but deeply fluctuating amplitudes. For a given range cell, the sea spikes may persist for time spans of the order of seconds then disappear for tens of seconds before reappearing. This paper presents some data examples of sea spikes seen with a variety of instrumentation radar systems and points out some common characteristics of their time histories.