Study on the impact of oceanic environment on radar mean clutter reflectivity

To analyze the impact of oceanic environment on radar mean clutter reflectivity, a relational backscattering coefficient model based on the modified composite sea clutter model has been built. The main scattering form is specular return at high grazing angle, and Bragg scattering at low grazing angle. Improvements have been made in the directional ocean wave spectrum part of Bragg scattering, considering the difference of backscattering coefficient between upwind and downwind conditions. With the model, simulations have been made in different incident conditions. The results indicate that the characteristics of radar backscatter can be very sophisticated when the sea surface is involved. Oceanic factors like wind speed, wind direction, wave height, rainfall, slicks will bring various effects on the mean clutter reflectivity. Furthermore, wind speed and significant wave height both have the largest effect on backscattering coefficient, and wind direction takes the second place, then rainfall, and slick is the least influential factor.