Detection of Vessel Targets in Sea Clutter Using In Situ Sea State Measurements With HFSWR

The detection of vessel targets could be effectively resolved in a high-frequency surface wave radar (HFSWR). However, signals reflected from vessels are concealed by sea clutter in the Doppler spectrum, where such detections are performed. Consequently, differences between these features in the Doppler domain cannot be readily observed, which greatly increases the difficulty in detecting vessel targets. In this letter, in situ sea state information is utilized to facilitate the detection of targets within sea clutter. First, the sea clutter spectrum, which is absent of vessel, is constructed. Second, sensitive sea clutter features that are influenced by vessel targets are selected and analyzed. Third, anomalies in sensitive sea clutter features are detected by obtaining respective thresholds. Finally, vessel targets are identified by the synthesized anomaly detection. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, and the vessels detected using the HFSWR are further verified using synchronous automatic identification system information.