HF radar sea clutter rejection by nonlinear projections

In the background of signal detection for high frequency (HF) radar, the sea clutter is quite significant and can mask some weak target signals. A new clutter rejection method named “nonlinear projection” is given to improve the SNR of the target. This approach is based on the recent observation that HF sea clutter may be modeled as a nonlinear deterministic dynamical system. After approximating the multidimensional reconstruction of the clutter by a low-dimensional attractor, projections onto this attractor can separate the clutter from other components. Real sea clutter, simulated target data and real target data are used to show that a nonlinear clutter rejection method is a promising technique to suppress sea clutter and enhances target detection.