Sea clutter statistical characterization using TerraSAR-X data

The paper presents a preliminary statistical evaluation of the sea clutter returns imaged by a spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) mission as TerraSAR-X. Two polarimetric data takes, Dual-polarized (Dual-Pol) and Quad-polarized (Quad-Pol), covering the range of incidence angles from 30 to 32 degrees, are considered for the stochastic characterization. The results show that the K-distribution, extendedly assumed statistics for high resolution radar sea clutter imaging, fits well the data's amplitude. This information jointly with the inverted sea spectrum are used to simulate SAR images of realistic scenarios that can be exploited for proper performance evaluation of ground moving target indication (GMTI) techniques and missions for maritime surveillance.Peer Reviewe