Multichannel Analysis of Medium Grazing Angle Sea Clutter for Airborne Microwave Radar Systems

One efficient method to detect slow targets with low signal-to-clutter-plus-noise ratios is space-time adaptive processing (STAP). To apply STAP to maritime radar systems, the multichannel properties of sea clutter have to be known. This thesis provides a mathematical basis to describe these characteristics and predict STAP performance over water for airborne microwave radar systems. To confirm the derived properties, several real multichannel sea data sets for different swell directions and sea states were acquired and simulations were conducted.

---

One efficient method to detect slow targets with low signal-to-clutter-plus-noise ratios is space-time adaptive processing (STAP). To apply STAP to maritime radar systems, the multichannel properties of sea clutter have to be known. This thesis provides a mathematical basis to describe these characteristics and predict STAP performance over water for airborne microwave radar systems. To confirm the derived properties, several real multichannel sea data sets for different swell directions and sea states were acquired and simulations were conducted.
Valeria Gracheva received the Dipl.-Ing. degree in electrical engineering and information technology from RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, in 2009. Since 2010, she has been with the Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques FHR. Her research interests include space-time adaptive processing, moving target detection, and sea clutter analysis.