Fractal approach for sea clutter generation

Clutter is obtained by applying physical optics to a sea surface described by a fractal model. This approach gives two interesting advantages. It is possible to control sea, radar and geometry parameters so reproducing a realistic scenario in which the clutter signal is generated. The main drawback of the clutter stochastic models which generate statistical clutter-like random sequences without directly accounting for the operating conditions in which this clutter is expected, is overcome. Secondly, the fractal nature of the sea clutter is intrinsically taken into account through the fractal characterisation of the sea surface. This aspect leads to a rigorous theoretical study on the fractal nature of the sea clutter and is also useful in new remote sensing research concerning fractal analysis of clutter for classification and detection purposes. The clutter generator was finally validated by statistical analysis of the output data. The results show a statistical behaviour comparable with that obtained from experimental data in the literature.