An estimation of sea surface influence on radar reflectivity of ships

A theoretical and numerical method is presented for the analysis of sea surface influence on the radar reflectivity of ships. The method of analysis is based on presentation of the field density scattered by the ship as a sum of echoes from different backscatterers located on the surface of the ship. The influence of sea surface is accounted for under the physical optics assumption. An analytical expression is obtained for the propagation factor with the ship in line-of-sight (LOS) range. Plots are illustrated for the dependence of the propagation factor on ship range for different heights of the radar antenna. The effect of microwave backscattering amplification from the ship is predicted for grazing angles of observation within LOS range.