A statistical distribution of quad-pol X-band sea clutter time series acquired at a grazing angle

Abstract

Although the complex Wishart distribution has been widely used to analyze the statistic properties of quad-pol SAR spatial data, the applicability of this complex distribution to the time series of sea clutter is rarely discussed. The measured data of the quad-pol X-band marine radar demonstrate that the time series of the sea echoes are also satisfied the circular Gaussian distributions if the low intensity signals, which are mainly dominated by a radar noise, in the shadow regions of the large-scale waves are removed. On the basis of this fact, the probability density functions (PDFs) of the intensity as well as the phase, the real and the imaginary parts of the sea echoes obtained by the marine radar have been derived, and the theoretical models are all expressed in closed forms. In order to validate the theoretical results, the PDFs are compared with the experimental data collected by the McMaster IPIX radar. And the comparisons show that the PDF models are in good agreement with the experimental data.