A simulator of sea clutter from X-band radar at low

grazing angles
Guillaume Sicot, Nicolas Thomas

Jean-Marc Le Caillec

Actimar
36 quai de la douane
29200 Brest - France
Email: guillaume.sicot@actimar.fr

Telecom-Bretagne, dpt ITI

Lab-STICC UMR 3192
Technople Brest-Iroise
CS 83818
29238 Brest Cedex 3 - France

AbstractSea-return signals from X-band radar contain backscattering signals from the sea surface called sea clutter, due
to the interaction between electromagnetic waves and the sea
surface. In this paper, we will present a simulator that calculates
the sea clutter spectrum from a coastal radar. This implies that
sea clutter characteristics should be computed for low-grazing
angles. The goal of this simulator is to implement models for all
the components involved in the radar chain from the emission
of electromagnetic waves to their reception. In order to be able
to simulate back-scattering signals from a quite large area, the
computation time is considered with care as part of the design
of the simulator.

I. I NTRODUCTION
In the context of a low grazing angle X-band radar, backscattering signals contain targets and the sea clutter. Spectral
characteristics of the sea clutter affect the performance of
detectors of targets such as moving target indicator filter
or constant false alarm techniques. In order to quantify its
influence on detectors, the first part is to simulate the sea
clutter from environmental parameters, which is the purpose
of this paper.
Low grazing angle radar spectra can be explained by the
coexistence of two kinds of back-scatterers : slow and fast
scatterers. First ones can be explained by the Bragg resonance,
the others ones are produced by breaking waves ([1]) and give
spikes as results. Although the breaking waves phenomenon
is still an open problem, one hydrodynamic criteria to explain
breaking waves is the curvature of waves. Therefore, in order
to localize breaking waves, we choose to simulate the sea
surface. Hence our simulator is composed of three models
: a hydrodynamic model, an electromagnetic model and a
propagation model.
II. T HE MODELS
As explained previously, we will describe models implemented in the simulator.
A. The hydrodynamic model
Low grazing angle radar spectra can be modeled as the
result of two kinds of scatterers : slow and fast scatterers. Slow scatterers appeared near the Bragg frequency
resonance and fast scatterers are associated with breaking
waves. Although the breaking waves phenomenon is still an

open problem, one hydrodynamic criteria to explain breaking

waves is the curvature of waves. Therefore, in order to localize
breaking waves, we choose to simulate the sea surface. To
provide information on the sea state, the directional spectrum
is used. One way to simulate sea surface from a directional
spectrum is to compute an inverse fast fourier transform of it
and to affect random phase to each sinusoid. This operation
gives a linear sea surface. The non-linearities are due to phase
rearrangement and give steeper waves which is interesting for
us to simulate fast scatterers.
Therefore we split the directional spectrum in two part : a
bare spectrum and a dressed one as in [2], [3]. Hence each
elementary wave are expressed as :
w (t) = a cos(t + ) + cos(2(t + )) + sin(2(t + ))
(1)
where the first term in the sum is provided by the bare
spectrum and the two other term are provided by the dressed
spectrum. In this equation, represents the pulsation of the
wave and its phase. This expression allows us to produce
waves with asymmetries as shown on the figure 1. In the
equation (1), the parameter (resp. ) controls the amount of
horizontal (resp. vertical) asymmetry in the final wave profile.
In our implementation, the ratio between and is modified
according to the wave direction and to the wind direction.
If the wave moves in the same way as the wind direction,
then this wave will only have vertical asymmetry. Horizontal
asymmetry appears when the wave direction deviates from the
wind one.
Once the surface is simulated, it is analysed to detect and
localize breaking waves. All parts of the surface whose slope
exceeds a threshold are considered to break. Nevertheless, the
final localization of breaking waves can be modified to appear
at the top of waves.
This part of the simulator provides a sea surface. In the next
chapter, we will present how this surface will be involved
in the computation of the back-scattering signal with the
electromagnetic model.
B. The electromagnetic model
This paragraph will be divided in two parts, the first will
deal with low scatterers and the second part with fast

(a) Wave profile with horizontal (b) Wave profile with vertical
asymmetry
asymmetry

(c) Wave profile with both horizontal and vertical asymmetries

Fig. 2.

Geometry of the two scale model (from [4])

Fig. 1. Wave profile obtain with equation 1. In dashed line, the equivalent
linear wave is shown.

ones. The model implemented to simulate the low scatterers

is the two-scale model ([4]). It appears appropriate for our
application and is relevant regarding the computation time. In
this model, the sea elevation is split into two terms as it is
shown below :
h(x, y, t) = h1 (x, y, t) + h2 (x, y, t)

(2)

where h(x, y, t) represent the elevation of the surface at

position (x, y) at a time t. h1 (x, y, t) is the elevation of large
scale of the wave spectrum (compared to the electromagnetic
wavelength), and h2 (x, y, t) is the elevation due to small scale.
The waves that interact with the electromagnetic wave are in
small-scale waves and large scale waves modulate them. The
geometry involved in this model is shown on figure 2. In this
model, only the statistics of the small scale waves are use
in the computation of back-scattering cross section of a tilted
facet. A tilted facet is described by a slope vector s = (sx , sy ),
where sx = tan and sy = tan , according to the notation
given in the figure 2. Moreover the sea surface is considered
in motion, a speed vector u = (ux , uy , uz ) is also associated
to each facet. Let A be a given area, with a distribution on
slope and orbital velocity PA (s, u), provided by large scale
waves. The Doppler spectrum, FA (), of the back-scattering
signal from this area can be written as :
Z
F () = PA (s, u)[ + (s)( 0 1+ (u))
(3)
+ (s)( 0 1 (u))]
In the equation (3), (s) represents the back-scattering cross
section of a tilted facet with a slope vector s for receding()
or approaching (+) waves. 0 is frequency of the incident
electromagnetic wave, and 1 (u) describes the Doppler shift
of the back-scattering signal. This latter takes into account,

the speed of the Bragg resonant wave and the current. The
expression of all these parameters can be found in [4].
Concerning the fast scatterers, we have implemented the
model presented in [1]. In this paper, the back-scattering
signal from breaking wave are considered to result from a
large numbers of elementary isotropic scatterers. Hence each
elementary scatterer sends back a fixed portion of the incident
electromagnetic signal. The relevant speed use to estimate the
shift of the back-scattering signal in the Doppler spectrum
is the local phase speed of the breaking facet. With an
Hilbert transform we can estimate the local wave frequency
and the local wavenumber. The ratio of this two parameters
gives us an estimation of the local phase speed. Finally,
for each elementary scatterer, a randomly deviation from the
mean value of the Doppler shift is performed according to a
lorentzian distribution ([5]).
In the next part, we will deal with the attenuation of the
electromagnetic wave due to its propagation from the emission
to the sea surface.
C. The propagation model
The attenuation of the electromagnetic field is obtained by
resolving the parabolic equation. This equation was formerly
use in sonar application, and became in the radar field in the
middle of the 20th century with the growth of calculation
capacity ([6]). In two dimensions, where r represents the
distance and z the altitude, the parabolic equation can be
written as below:
(r, z)
2 (r, z)
+2jk0
+k02 (n2 (x, z)1)(r, z) = 0 (4)
z 2
r
In this equation, k0 is wavenumber of the electromagnetic
wave, is the complex attenuation and n is the refractive
index over the air column. In order to resolve this equation
we use the split step Fourier algorithm ([7], [8]). From a
solution at r, this method calculates the solution at r + r.

(a) On flat surface, with a constant refractive index

(b) On flat surface, with a variable refractive index

Fig. 3.

Examples of attenuation due to propagation

azimuth to another is independent. With all this information

we are able to generate a map of the attenuation just over the
sea surface.
Another difficulty encountered is the link between the propagation model and the electromagnetic model. Indeed as we
have seen previously, the electromagnetic field is considered as
a ray that interacts with the sea surface. Therefore we have
to determine the incident angle which is not well defined with
our propagation model. Hence we compute the mean incident
angle of the incident electromagnetic field. This is done by
considering a small part of the complex attenuation over the
surface. The Fourier transform produces theoretically the field
distribution according to the variable p = k0 sin , with k0 the
wave number of the radar and the incident angle ([8]). Hence
with this decomposition and with a weighted mean according
to the field distribution, an incident angle is estimated.
In this section, we have described the model use in our
simulator. In the next section we will focus on the structure
of the simulator and how the computation is performed.
III. S TRUCTURE

Fig. 4.

Examples of attenuation on an uneven surface

Hence we can propagate a solution with this method. The

initial solution is given by the characteristic of the antenna.
Moreover we consider that the sea is a perfect conductor.
The figure 3 presents two examples of attenuation calculated
with the split step Fourier algorithm in two different contexts
: the figure 3(b) show the result of the attenuation of the
electromagnetic field on a flat surface with a constant refractive
index and on the figure 3(b) is shown the attenuation over
a flat surface but with a variable refractive index. Besides,
in [7], a way to integrate rough terrain in the calculation
process is presented. This modification is also implemented
in our propagation model. This last improvement avoids us
to compute the shadow parts on the sea surface due to its
elevation. Indeed the shadow parts are directly obtained with
the attenuation. The figure 4 presents an example of our
implementation on a simple uneven surface.
In the previous paragraph, we have presented the parabolic
equation and some results for one horizontal dimension. However the sea surface generated by the hydrodynamic model
provide surface with two horizontal dimensions. In order to get
attenuation information over the sea surface, it is computed for
different azimuths. We consider that the computation from one

OF THE SIMULATOR

The figure 5 presents the structure of the simulator. In

order to comment this schematic, we will explain how the
computation process progresses. We will consider that the
system is a radar with an rotating antenna. The first step in the
computation process is an initialization step. In this step, all
the operations that we have to do just once are performed. It
begin with the formatting of parameters in order to be usable
in the different models. This can also be the re-gridding of
data such as the directional spectrum. We also discretize the
time dimension, and calculate instant where simulation of the
back-scattered signal have to be done.
The elementary computation element is the simulation of
Doppler spectra at different range for a given azimuth of
the antenna. This begin by the generation of the sea surface
with the hydrodynamic model. The surface is then send to
the propagation model in order to get the attenuation just
over the surface and to estimate the incident angle. Before
the electromagnetic model computes the back-scattering crosssection, an analysis of the surface is performed to detect and
to localize breaking waves. This analysis will produce a map
sent to the electromagnetic model. This map indicates the
localization of fast back-scatterer which is required by the
electromagnetic model. At the end all the Doppler spectra at
each range by the electromagnetic model are mixed to produce
the final Doppler spectra at a given instant. This is repeated
for each relevant moment found in the initialization step.
IV. S OME

RESULTS

In this section, some examples will be presented. The

simulator can produce the energy of the Doppler spectrum for
different meteo-oceanographic environment. Its phase is not
computed. The integration of Doppler spectra over frequencies
provides the energy of the back-scattered signal. The figure
6 presents this kind of result near the radar. In a second
example, we present the Doppler spectrum of the simulated

Fig. 7.

Fig. 5.

Structure of the simulator

Doppler spectra at a fixed azimuth

back-scattered signal for a given azimuth. In that example the

significant wave height was fixed at 3m. The considered area
was at 10km and the radar was at 80m above the mean of
the sea-surface elevation. The figure 7 shows the result from
our simulator with frequency according to the distance for
a HH polarization. In that example, we can see two points
which are quite far in frequency compared to the other element
of the Doppler spectrum. These points must be due to fast
scatterers.

V. C ONCLUSION

Fig. 6.

Energy of the simulated back-scattered signal from the sea

In this paper, a simulator of sea clutter is presented. In a first

part we have presented, the models used to generate the sea
surface, to calculate the cross-section of a small sea surface
area and to compute the attenuation of the electromagnetic
signal. The goal of this simulator is to aggregate all this model
and to manage to make them work together. As a result we
expect to have realistic sea clutter.
This simulator is designed to accept different meteooceanographic environment. This can make this simulator a
interesting tool to evaluate sea clutter before the installation
of a radar according to typical environmental characteristics
of the area of interest.
In the actual version, the simulator is in a validation phase.
Actually the simulated Doppler spectra should be compared
to real data, which has not been done yet.
Moreover different parts of the simulator could be improved.
At first the sea surface can be modified to generate more
realistic surface, and we are indeed developing a new model of
non-linear sea surface. This is quite important in the simulator
structure as it is used to distinguish slow and fast scattered
and it is involved in the computation of the cross-section
for slow scattered. Besides, we also think to modify the
propagation model in order to integrate the fact that sea surface
is not a perfect conductor.

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