Abstract:

To study the effect of multipath propagation on the radar image of sea objects, the work endues the sea surface with the Kirchhoff approximation. Under this assumption, the propagating route of the incident wave is formed geometrically between the object scattering center and the sea surface. The joint probability density function of the sea elevations and slopes is introduced, and the probability model of the multipath delay in radar echoes is accordingly established. The model validation is accomplished through the comparison with electromagnetic simulations. Its relationship with the scattering center height, the radar elevation angle, and the sea characteristic parameters is analyzed. In the end, some examples illustrate the application of the model in the field of sea object recognition.