Detection by radar of a slow‐moving target on the sea surface

Abstract

A simple model is proposed for the radar returns from a slow‐moving target with a wake on the sea surface, based on measurements of returns from a submarine mast. This model is used to investigate the effect of a wake with a broad Doppler spectrum on the detection of a slow‐moving target in sea clutter. It is shown how the relative magnitudes of the returns from the target and its wake affect detection performance. Non‐coherent and coherent detectors are compared and it is shown that in some circumstance non‐coherent detectors may give better performance, dependent on the choice of radar waveform parameters.