Sea Clutter: Scattering, the K Distribution and Radar Performance (Ward, K.D., et al.; 2006) [Book Review]

Radar sea clutter has been studied since the earliest days of radar; the ability to represent the backscatter from the sea surface in statistical terms, and hence to predict radar performance, is central to the problem of detection of small targets on the sea surface. Various models have been developed and used over the years, but a significant advance was the introduction in 1981 by Keith Ward (one of the authors of this book) of the compound form of the K-distribution clutter model.* This has the advantage that it not only models the "tail" of the clutter distribution more accurately than other approaches, but can also take into account the spatial and temporal correlation properties of the clutter that are important with radars of higher and higher resolution. The K-distribution has therefore been widely used, and indeed extended to model other types of radar clutter as well. The publication of a book that treats the K-distribution model and its application in detail, and written by three acknowledged experts, has been eagerly anticipated, and the result certainly does not disappoint! The book is organized in ten chapters and three appendices. Following an introduction, the phenomenological characteristics of radar sea clutter are explained, then three chapters which treat the modelling of electromagnetic scattering, statistical models of sea clutter, and the simulation of clutter and other random processes. The remaining chapters show how the models are used in practice in the design, testing and customer acceptance of real systems, and treat the problem of detection of small targets in sea clutter, imaging ocean surface features, radar detection performance calculations. CFAR detection, and the specification and measurement of radar performance. The style is detailed, clear and authoritative, with a great deal of mathematical detail indeed, the introduction suggests that the reader will need sufficient mathematical maturity to look an unfamiliar equation in the eye without flinching," But the three appendices provide a comprehensive review of the mathematics needed to understand the text, in a characteristically entertaining style. Overall, this book can confidently be predicted to become a "classic," demanding a place on the bookshelf of any practising radar engineer or student. It will also be of interest to applied mathematicians, since the stochastic models are more generally applicable to a wider range of problems.