HF radar signatures of ship and submarine wakes

Abstract

Radars operating in the HF band have been widely used to detect and track surface ships from their skin echoes; indeed, in many cases this has been the primary mission of the radar. Yet vessels moving on and through the ocean create a family of disturbances collectively referred to as the wake, though a number of different mechanisms and phenomena are involved. It is therefore of interest to explore the possibility of detecting the wake echo and exploiting it as far as possible. In this study, the author presents an analysis of this problem and shows that there is indeed a characteristic signature associated with the Kelvin wake and this contains retrievable information relevant to target discrimination and classification.