Sea Clutter: Scattering, the K Distribution and Radar Performance

This book provides an authoritative account of the current understanding of radar sea clutter, describing its phenomenology, EM scattering and statistical modelling and simulation, and their use in the design of detection systems and the calculation and practical evaluation of radar performance.

The book pays particular attention to the compound K distribution model developed by the authors during the past 20 years. The evidence for this model, its mathematical formulation and development and practical application to the specification, design and evaluation of radar systems are all discussed. In addition, the book sets the previously empirical development of the K distribution model in the wider context of recent advances in the calculation of low grazing angle electromagnetic scattering and oceanographic modelling of the statistics of the sea surface.

The authors discuss in detail the prediction of the performance of specified radar systems; at the same time, their presentation of the underlying physical principles and analytic and computational techniques employed in these calculations is sufficiently comprehensive for the reader to be well equipped to tackle related problems with confidence.

These features, and appendices reviewing pertinent mathematical background material and the calculation of low grazing angle scattering by corrugated surfaces, make this book invaluable to specialist radar engineers and academic researchers, while being of considerable interest to the wider applied physics and mathematics communities.

Keith D. Ward is a director of TW Research Ltd, a small company set up in 1995 to develop and exploit models of all aspects of radar operation and performance. Previously they worked for the UK Ministry of Defence at RSRE Malvern on topics ranging from theoretical physics to maritime radar, seekers and remote sensing. They are both authors of numerous journal and conference papers.

Robert J.A. Tough is a director of TW Research Ltd, a small company set up in 1995 to develop and exploit models of all aspects of radar operation and performance. Previously they worked for the UK Ministry of Defence at RSRE Malvern on topics ranging from theoretical physics to maritime radar, seekers and remote sensing. They are both authors of numerous journal and conference papers.

Simon Watts is Deputy Scientific Director of Thales UK, Aerospace Division. He joined Thales (then EMI Electronics) in 1967 and has subsequently worked on a wide range of radar and EW projects, particularly airborne maritime surveillance radar systems. He is author and co-author of over 30 journal and conference papers and several patents, mainly relating to radar performance in sea clutter. He was appointed MBE in 2000 for services to the defence industry.