MARLENE: Mediterranean RFC and sea clutter environmental experiment

In the framework of Germany and France cooperation, a specific experiment called MARLENE has been carried out in the Mediterranean sea region off Toulon, France, in spring 2014. It aims at characterizing sea environmental influence on electromagnetic wave propagation and sea backscattering for Refractivity From Clutter (RFC) and radar Doppler detection. Environment measurements and characterization of the marine boundary layer have received a special attention and were carried out on board the German RV PLANET meteorological ship and complementary at the coastal based test site SESDA. Three fixed radar devices were deployed along the coast operating at different frequency bands and polarizations: MEMPHIS (FHR), MARSIG (WTD71), and MEDYCIS (ONERA). The paper describes the experiment, some data processing and preliminary comparisons with modeling.