Published in IET Radar, Sonar and Navigation
Received on 24th May 2013
Revised on 7th January 2014
Accepted on 13th May 2014
doi: 10.1049/iet-rsn.2013.0174
ISSN 1751-8784
Space-time model of the first-order sea clutter in
onshore bistatic high frequency surface wave radar
Junhao Xie, Minglei Sun, Zhenyuan Ji
Department of Electronic Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, People’s Republic of China
E-mail: xj@hit.edu.cn
Abstract: Land or sea clutter Doppler frequency shift and spectrum spread are traditionally attributed to the radar platform motion
relative to the clutter scatterer. However, another spreading mechanism of the clutter Doppler spectrum exists in onshore bistatic
high frequency surface wave radar (HFSWR), which is presented in this study. Based on the space-time distribution of the first-
order sea clutter in onshore bistatic HFSWR, the spreading model is proposed, which is verified by the simulation and
experimental results. It demonstrates that the space-time model would be of fundamental importance to the future
experimental investigations, not only of target detection but also of ocean remote sensing with onshore bistatic HFSWR.
1 Introduction
High frequency surface wave radar (HFSWR) utilises a
vertical polarisation electromagnetic wave that follows the
curvature of the Earth along the air–water interface and has
a very low propagation loss on the highly conductive ocean
surface. It has been successfully deployed to detect targets
and ocean remote sensing for more than three decades [1–
6]. Compared with the conventional measurements, such as
microwave radars, anemometers and buoys, HFSWR can
provide continuous, all-weather and real-time surveillance
far beyond the visible horizon.
In HFSWR applications, the studies are mainly carried out
for the case of co-location of transmitter and receiver.
However, such a monostatic HFSWR will yield ambiguous
directional information of ocean remote sensing [7, 8]. In
order to resolve the problem, a second HFSWR is
employed to interrogate the region of interest from different
directions [9, 10]. Recently, the bistatic HFSWR has
received many attentions [11–14]. Then rather than two full
radar systems, a monostatic HFSWR and another separated
receiver can provide a unique opportunity to measure ocean
surface information without direction ambiguity. In
addition, the radar detection range could be enlarged.
The Doppler frequency of the echo from a stationary clutter
scatterer is no longer at zero Doppler frequency when the
radar platform is moving. Not only does the centre
frequency of the clutter spectrum vary, but also the clutter
spectrum is spread. Thus the spread clutter Doppler
spectrum in airborne early warning radar and the spread
first-order Bragg lines in shipborne HFSWR would
significantly affect the detection of targets whose Doppler
frequencies lie within the spreading domain of the clutter
spectrum [ 15, 16]. Nevertheless, the spread spectrum
contains the sea clutter returns from different directions
(corresponding to different Bragg lines), which may be of
advantage for the extraction of ocean surface wind direction
[17].
However, it is notable that the spread sea clutter spectrum
still exists in onshore bistatic HFSWR, where the spreading
mechanism is significantly different. The spread sea clutter
spectrum may significantly affect the application of onshore
bistatic HFSWR in target detection and ocean remote
sensing. Therefore an understanding of the bistatic
spreading mechanism of the first-order sea clutter spectrum
should be essential to the developments of the bistatic
clutter suppression and ocean remote sensing schemes.
In this paper, the traditional spreading mechanism of the
clutter spectrum because of platform motion is provided in
Section 2. Based on the space-time distribution, the
spreading mechanism of the first-order sea clutter in
onshore bistatic HFSWR is proposed in Section 3. In
Section 4, the properties of the space-time model are
investigated by simulation results. In Section 5, the
experimental results are presented to verify the spreading
mechanism, which demonstrates that the space-time model
would provide a foundation for the future applications of
onshore bistatic HFSWR in target detection and ocean
remote sensing. In addition, a brief conclusion and the
direction of ongoing work are addressed.
2 Traditional spreading mechanism of clutter
spectrum
The Doppler frequency shift of the echo from a stationary
clutter scatterer when viewed by a moving radar can be
given by
f
c
=
2v cos (
u
)
l
(1)
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IET Radar Sonar Navig., 2015, Vol. 9, Iss. 1, pp. 55–61
doi: 10.1049/iet-rsn.2013.0174
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