Modeling of bistatic radar sea clutter returns based on IEM-B scattering model

Abstract

Bistatic radar has received widespread attention for its potential advantages as it provides more degree of freedom than typical monostatic radar. However, the received signal from the marine bistatic radar is inevitably influenced by the sea clutter. In this paper, a new method of modeling bistatic radar sea clutter returns is presented. The method adopted the Bistatic Integral Equation Model (IEM-B) to calculate bistatic sea clutter reflectivity by formulating the bistatic geometrical relationship. Then a new formulation for the scale parameter of compound K-distribution in bistatic configuration is proposed according to the bistatic sea clutter reflectivity. Finally, the returns of the bistatic radar sea clutter following compound K-distribution are generated by the theory of Spherically Invariant Random Processes (SIRP). This study can be used to evaluate the bistatic radar signal model and predict system detection performance in a sea clutter environment. Simulation results show the efficiency of the proposed method.