Realistic Synthetic Sea-Clutter Generation for Electronically Scanned Radar

The generation of synthetic environments is of prime importance for radar performance prediction and radar development. This is the case for maritime radar where realistic sea clutter generation is particularly useful. New detection strategies of small targets in high sea states with very long integration times, as well as the advent of affordable fixed-panels AESA, require adapting the sea clutter generation principles that were used with the previous mechanical scanning radars. This paper presents a method for synthetic clutter generation putting emphasis on a realistic clutter correlation properties reproduction, whether the beam movement is continuous or discontinuous, scanning very rapidly, randomly and even if the antenna beam is stationary.