Coherent radar processing in sea clutter environments, part 1: Modelling and partially adaptive STAP performance

Performance of space-time adaptive processing (STAP) with adaptive matched filter detection for maritime surveillance is assessed using simulated maritime surface targets embedded in real radar sea clutter data and compared with conventional pulse-Doppler processing. Pre-Doppler and post-Doppler suboptimal STAP are examined, with pulse repetition interval (PRI)-staggered post-Doppler shown to provide best overall detection and constant false alarm rate performance. A two-component clutter model fit is used to explain variations of clutter characteristics and detector performance with Doppler frequency.