Property Analysis and Suppression Method of Real Measured Sea Spikes

Abstract

In case of high-resolution, low grazing angle, high sea state, and horizontal transmitting, horizontal receiving polarization, the radar returns are strengthened, resulting in sea spikes. The sea spikes have the characteristics of high amplitudes, nonstationary, and non-Gaussian, which have a strong impact on the radar detection of weak marine moving targets. This study proposes a method for sea clutter suppression. Firstly, based on the sea spikes identification and selection method, the amplitude, temporal correlation, Doppler spectrum, and fractional power spectrum properties of sea spikes are analyzed. Secondly, the data to be detected are chosen by selecting the background clutter with minimum mean power, which can also eliminate the sea spikes. Correspondingly, sea clutter is suppressed with improved Signal-to-Clutter Ratio (SCR). Finally, the results of experiment with real radar data verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.