A practical approach to the prediction and assessment of radar performance in sea clutter

Conventional performance metrics are inadequate to specify or assess the operation of advanced airborne maritime radars when detecting targets in sea clutter. This paper reviews the ways in which the detection performance of airborne maritime surveillance radars may be predicted and discusses how performance should be assessed when comparing alternative detection schemes. An essential element in the accurate prediction of performance in sea clutter is the use of compound clutter models and new empirical formulae are presented for estimating detection performance using the compound K-distribution model.