Modified GIT model for predicting wind-speed behavior of low-grazing-angle radar sea clutter

A modified GIT model for describing the variational trend of mean clutter reflectivity as a function of wind speed is proposed. It uses two slope adjustment factors and two critical wind-speed factors to define and adjust the increasing slope of reflectivity with respect to wind speed. In addition, it uses a constant factor to compensate the overall amplitude of clutter reflectivity. The performance of the modified GIT model has been verified on the basis of the L-band low-grazing-angle radar sea clutter data. The results are in good agreement with the experimental data, indicating that the model is more effective in predicting the wind-speed behavior of clutter reflectivity than the conventional GIT model, especially for lower and higher wind speeds. We believe that the proposed model can provide deeper insights into the relationship between radar sea clutter reflectivity and sea state conditions.

The Echo Modelling and Simulation of the Semi-Active Radar Seeker against a Sea Skimming Target

This paper has proposed a new modelling and simulating technique for the echo of the semi-active radar seeker against the sea skimming target. The echo modelling is based on the electromagnetic scattering mechanisms. A modified Four-path model based on the radar detection scene is used to describe the multipath scattering between the target and rough sea surface. A Facet-based Small Slope Approximation (FBSSA) method is employed to calculate the scattering from the sea surface. The Physical Optics (PO) and the Equivalent Edge Current (EEC) Method is used to calculate the target scattering. In the echo simulations. The results present the original echo and the echo processed by the signal processing procedures, where the clutter and multipath effect can be observed.

Measurement analyses and evaluations of sea-level heights using the HY-2A satellite’s radar altimeter

The HY-2A satellite is China’s first independent oceanic dynamic environmental satellite,and has been operating continuously for more than six years.The satellite’s radar altimeter,which is one of the main loads on the satellite,has the ability to realize all-weather and all-day observations of global sea-surface heights,as well as significant wave heights and sea-surface wind speeds.These observed data have been widely used in marine disaster prevention and reduction,along with resource development,maritime security and other fields.In order to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the multi-year overall observational performances of the HY-2A satellite’s radar altimeter,all of the observational data of the IGDR product from October 26,2012 to August 27,2017 were selected in this study for a comprehensive evaluation.The height measurement capability of the HY-2A satellite’s radar altimeter was evaluated using self-crossover and Jason-2 crossover methods.The height discrepancies at the self-crossover point of the HY-2A satellite’s ascending and descending orbits were also calculated.It was found that for the HY-2A satellite’s radar altimeter in global waters under the restriction conditions of ascending and descending orbits,the height anomaly differences were within a range of less than 30 cm.The absolute mean error was determined to be 5.81 cm,and the height anomaly standard deviation was 7.76 cm.Under the conditions of the observational areas being limited within a scope of 60°from the Equator,it was determined that the sea-level height anomaly differences were less than 10 cm at the junction of the ascending and descending orbits,the absolute mean error was 3.95 cm.In addition,the sea-level height anomaly standard deviation was observed to be 4.76cm.Using a mutual cross method with the Jason-2 satellite,it was found that under the conditions of the observational area being within the scope of 66°from the equator,the height anomaly differences at the junction were less than 30cm,and the absolute mean error of HY-2A and Jason-2 sea level height anomaly was 5.86 cm,with a standard deviation of 7.52 cm.It was observed that,if within the sea area the sea level height anomaly difference was limited to within 10cm,then the absolute mean error and standard deviation could reach 4.19cm and 4.98cm,respectively.It was confirmed that the HY-2A satellite’s radar altimeter had successfully reached the height measurement level of similar international altimeters.Therefore,it had the ability to meet the needs of marine scientific research and ocean circulation inversions.

Application of ESPRIT in Broad Beam HF Ground Wave Radar Sea Surface Current Mapping

HF surface wave radar system OSMAR2000 is a broad-beam sea-state detecting radar. ESPRIT (Estimation of Signal Parameters via Rotational Invariance Technique) algorithm is proposed to apply in DOA (direction of arrival) determination of sea echoes. The algorithm of ESPRIT is briefly introduced first. Then discussions are made on the technique for application in the OSMAR2000 framework. Numerical simulation results are presented to demonstrate the feasibility of radial current mapping based on this method. The algorithm manifests significant performance and computational advantages compared with that of MUSIC. Data acquired by OSMAR2000 are processed to give radial current map and the synthesized vector currents are compared with the in-situ measurement with traditional means. The results show the validity of ESPRIT application in DOA determination for broad-beam radar. Key words HF ground wave radar - sea surface current - ESPRIT - MUSIC CLC number TN 911.72 - TN 958.95 Foundation item: Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (60201003) and the National High Technology Development 863 Program of China (863-818-01-02)Biography: Liu Dan-hong (1976-), female, Master candidate, research direction: radar signal processing.

The measurement of sea surface profile with X-band coherent marine radar

The line-of-sight velocity of scattering facets is related to the Doppler signals of X-band coherent marine radar from the oceanic surface. First, the sign Doppler Estimator is applied to estimate the Doppler shift of each radar resolution cell. And then, in terms of the Doppler shift, a retrieval algorithm extracting the vertical displacement of the sea surface has been proposed. The effects induced by radar look-direction and radar spatial resolution are both taken into account in this retrieval algorithm. The comparison between the sea surface spectrum of buoy data and the retrieved spectrum reveals that the function of the radar spatial resolution is equivalent to a low pass filter, impacting especially the spectrum of short gravity waves. The experimental data collected by McMaster IPIX radar are also used to validate the performance of the retrieval algorithm. The derived significant wave height and wave period are compared with the in situ measurements, and the agreement indicates the practicality of the retrieval technology.

A synthetic aperture radar sea surface distribution estimation by n-order Bézier curve and its application in ship detection

To dates,most ship detection approaches for single-pol synthetic aperture radar（SAR） imagery try to ensure a constant false-alarm rate（CFAR）.A high performance ship detector relies on two key components：an accurate estimation to a sea surface distribution and a fine designed CFAR algorithm.First,a novel nonparametric sea surface distribution estimation method is developed based on n-order Bézier curve.To estimate the sea surface distribution using n-order Bézier curve,an explicit analytical solution is derived based on a least square optimization,and the optimal selection also is presented to two essential parameters,the order n of Bézier curve and the number m of sample points.Next,to validate the ship detection performance of the estimated sea surface distribution,the estimated sea surface distribution by n-order Bézier curve is combined with a cell averaging CFAR（CA-CFAR）.To eliminate the possible interfering ship targets in background window,an improved automatic censoring method is applied.Comprehensive experiments prove that in terms of sea surface estimation performance,the proposed method is as good as a traditional nonparametric Parzen window kernel method,and in most cases,outperforms two widely used parametric methods,K and G0 models.In terms of computation speed,a major advantage of the proposed estimation method is the time consuming only depended on the number m of sample points while independent of imagery size,which makes it can achieve a significant speed improvement to the Parzen window kernel method,and in some cases,it is even faster than two parametric methods.In terms of ship detection performance,the experiments show that the ship detector which constructed by the proposed sea surface distribution model and the given CA-CFAR algorithm has wide adaptability to different SAR sensors,resolutions and sea surface homogeneities and obtains a leading performance on the test dataset.

Nonparametric estimations of the sea state bias for a radar altimeter

To estimate the sea state bias（SSB） for radar altimeter, two nonparametric models, including a Nadaraya-Watson（NW） kernel estimator and a local linear regression（LLR） estimator, are studied based on the Jason-2 altimeter data. Selecting from different combinations of the Gaussian kernel function, spherical Epanechnikov kernel function, a fixed bandwidth and a local adjustable bandwidth, it is observed that the LLR method with the spherical Epanechnikov kernel function and the local adjustable bandwidth is the optimal nonparametric model for the SSB estimation. The comparisons between the nonparametric and parametric models are conducted and the results show that the nonparametric model performs relatively better at high-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. This method has been applied to the HY-2A altimeter as well and the same conclusion can be obtained.

Effect of Changes in Sea-Surface State on Statistical Characteristics of Sea Clutter with X-Band Radar

We have made observations of X-band radar sea clutter from the sea surface and sea-surface state in the Uraga Suido Traffic Route, which is used by ships entering and leaving Tokyo Bay, and the nearby Daini Kaiho Sea Fortress. We estimated the distributions of reflected amplitudes due to sea clutter using models that assume Weibull, Log-Weibull, Log-normal, and K-distributions. We then compared the results of estimating these distributions with sea-surface state data to investigate the effects of changes in the sea-surface state on the statistical characteristics of sea clutter. As a result, we showed that observed sub-ranges not containing a target conformed better to the Weibull distribution regardless of Significant Wave Height (SWH). Further, sub-ranges conforming to the Log-Weibull or Log-normal distribution in areas contained a target when the SWH was large, and as SWH decreases, sub-ranges conforming to a Log-normal. We also showed that for observed sub-ranges not containing a target, the shape parameter, c, of both Weibull and Log-Weibull distribution correlated with SWH. The correlation between wave period and shape parameters of Weibull and Log-Weibull distribution showed a weak correlation.

Reflectivity Model of Low Grazing Angle Radar Sea Clutter

The commonly used reflectivity models of radar sea clutter are summarized. Among these models, the adjusted Barton model and the adjusted Morchin model are compared. From the analysis result, the γ-p reflectivity model is presented for low grazing angle radar sea clutter by the adjustment of the original Barton reflectivity model. The model takes into account radar frequency, grazing angle, sea condition, and polarization property. The influences of these factors on the proposed model are analyzed. The model absorbs the merits from commonly used reflectivity models for sea clutter. It introduces several researchers' opinions, and extends them. And it accounts for the reflectivity at arbitrary radar frequency from VHF to X-band, arbitrary low grazing angle, arbitrary sea condition and different polarization property. One of the main results is the proposed γ-p reflectivity model can reflect the influence of polarization on sea clutter reflectivity to some extent. The proposed γ-p reflectivity model of low-angle radar-sea clutter is validated by comparing the simulated and statistically experimental data.

Regional characteristics of sea ice thickness in Canadian shelf and Arctic Archipelago measured by Ground Penetrating Radar

Ground Penetrating Radar （GPR） measurements of sea ice thickness including undeformed ice and ridged ice were carried out in the central north Canadian Archipelago in spring 2010. Results have shown a significant spatial heterogeneity of sea ice thickness across the shelf. The undeformed multi-year fast ice of （2.05±0.09） m thick was investigated southern inshore zone of Borden island located at middle of the observational section, which was the observed maximum thickness in the field work. The less thick sea ice was sampled across a flaw lead with the thicknesses of （1.05±0.11） m for the pack ice and （1.24±0.13） m for the fast ice. At the northernmost spot of the section, the undeformed multi-year pack ice was （1.54±0.22） m thick with a ridged ice of 2.5 to 3 m, comparing to the multi-year fast ice with the thickness of （1.67±0.16） m at the southernmost station in the Prince Gustaf Adolf Sea.

Measurements of sea ice thickness and its subice morphology analysis using ice-penetration radar in the Arctic Ocean

Based on radar penetrating measurements and analysis of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, The potential of radar wave to measure sea ice thickness and map the morphology of the underside of sea ice is investigated. The results indicate that the radar wave can penetrate Arctic summer sea ice of over 6 meters thick; and the propagation velocity of the radar wave in sea ice is in the range of 0.142 m·ns -1 to 0.154 m·ns -1 . The radar images display the roughness and micro-relief variation of sea ice bottom surface. These features are closely related to sea ice types, which show that radar survey may be used to identify and classify ice types. Since radar images can simultaneously display the linear profile features of both the upper surface and the underside of sea ice, we use these images to quantify their actual linear length discrepancy. A new length factor is suggested in relation to the actual linear length discrepancy in linear profiles of sea ice, which may be useful in further study of the area difference between the upper surface and bottom surface of sea ice.

基于SEA炮兵声测和雷达组网反炮兵侦察效能分析

反炮兵侦察是炮兵侦察的一项重要任务,声测和雷达是反炮兵侦察的主要装备。针对SEA方法的要求,提出了评估由炮兵声测和雷达组网的作战效能的3个主要性能度量(MOP)。结合信息化战场环境,建立炮兵声测和雷达组网的反炮兵侦察效能的动态评估模型,为其作战使用提供了理论依据。

基于RADARSAT-2 SAR卫星数据的海浪谱反演方法及其海试实验验证

针对加拿大遥感卫星RADARSAT-2 SAR观测海浪的实际需求,建立了一种适合于RADARSAT-2 SAR的海浪谱反演方法。搭载东方红3号科考船在中国南海台湾海峡西南部海域开展了浮标和SAR海浪的联合探测实验,获取了大量的现场观测资料,对SAR海浪谱反演方法反演的海浪参数结果进行了验证。结果表明:建立的SAR海浪谱反演方法具有较高的准确性,适用于RADARSAT-2 SAR的海浪反演。研究工作可为SAR海浪观测提供重要的参考,具有一定的实际应用价值。

基于SEA的雷达组网探测能力评估

对空中目标的探测能力是评估雷达组网作战效能的一项重要的基础性指标,为了客观评估雷达组网的探测能力,提出了一种基于SEA的评估方法,建立了评估的性能量度,构建了系统映射和使命映射的数学模型,并进行了仿真计算。仿真结果表明了该方法的可行性和有效性。

基于RADARSAT-2四极化SAR影像的海面风速反演

选取成像于中国东海和南海海域的102景RADARSAT-2(RS-2)精细四极化SAR原始影像以及ERA-Interim风场,在各极化通道下利用相应风速反演模型开展风速反演的研究。CMOD5地球物理模式函数对VV极化SAR数据反演风速效果最好,可以获取海面高精度风速数据。对于HH和交叉极化SAR影像,利用RS-2 SAR影像和ERA-Interim资料对现有风速反演模型进行改进,并提出了用于HH极化风速反演的PR_CS极化比模型和用于交叉极化风速反演的CP_CS模型。结果显示:基于两种模型的SAR反演风速与ERA-Interim风速具有良好的一致性,利用PR_CS模型的SAR反演风速与参考风速的均方根误差为1.54 m/s,利用CP_CS模型的SAR反演风速与ERA-Interim风速的均方根误差分别为1.43 m/s(VH极化)和1.51 m/s(HV极化)。

Evaluation of Wind Retrieval from Co-Polarization Gaofen-3 SAR Imagery Around China Seas

Gaofen-3(GF-3) is the first Chinese space-borne satellite to carry the C-band multi-polarization synthetic aperture radar(SAR). Marine applications, i.e., winds and waves retrieved from GF-3 SAR images, have been operational since January 2017. In this study, we have collected more than 1000 quad-polarization(vertical-vertical(VV); horizontal-horizontal(HH); vertical-horizontal(VH); horizontal-vertical(HV)) GF-3 SAR images, which were acquired around the China Seas from September 2016 to September 2017. Wind streaks were visible in these images in co-polarization(VV and HH) channel. Geophysical model functions(GMFs), including the CMOD5N together with polarization ratio(PR) model and C-SARMOD, were used to retrieve winds from the collected co-polarization GF-3 SAR images. Wind directions were directly obtained from GF-3 SAR images. Then, the SAR-derived wind speeds were compared with the measurements at a 0.25? grid from the Advanced Scatterometer on board the Metop-A/B and microwave radiometer WindSAT. Based on the analysis, empirical corrections are proposed to improve the performance of the two GMFs. Results of this study show that the standard deviation of wind speed is 1.63 m s^(-1) with a 0.19 m s^(-1) bias and 1.71 m s^(-1) with a 0.26 m s^(-1) bias for VV-and HH-polarization GF-3 SAR, respectively. Our work not only systematically evaluates wind retrieval by using the two advanced GMFs and PR models but also proposes empirical corrections to improve the accuracy of wind retrievals from GF-3 SAR images around the China Seas and thus enhance the accuracy of near real-time operational SAR-derived wind products.

Satellite SAR observation of the sea surface wind field caused by rain cells

Rain cells or convective rain,the dominant form of rain in the tropics and subtropics,can be easy detected by satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar（SAR） images with high horizontal resolution.The footprints of rain cells on SAR images are caused by the scattering and attenuation of the rain drops,as well as the downward airflow.In this study,we extract sea surface wind field and its structure caused by rain cells by using a RADARSAT-2 SAR image with a spatial resolution of 100 m for case study.We extract the sea surface wind speeds from SAR image by using CMOD4 geophysical model function with outside wind directions of NCEP final operational global analysis data,Advance Scatterometer（ASCAT） onboard European Met Op-A satellite and microwave scatterometer onboard Chinese HY-2 satellite,respectively.The root-mean-square errors（RMSE） of these SAR wind speeds,validated against NCEP,ASCAT and HY-2,are 1.48 m/s,1.64 m/s and 2.14 m/s,respectively.Circular signature patterns with brighter on one side and darker on the opposite side on SAR image are interpreted as the sea surface wind speed（or sea surface roughness） variety caused by downdraft associated with rain cells.The wind speeds taken from the transect profile which superposes to the wind ambient vectors and goes through the center of the circular footprint of rain cell can be fitted as a cosine or sine curve in high linear correlation with the values of no less than 0.80.The background wind speed,the wind speed caused by rain cell and the diameter of footprint of the rain cell with kilometers or tens of kilometers can be acquired by fitting curve.Eight cases interpreted and analyzed in this study all show the same conclusion.

Sea surface height measuring using InSAR altimeter

Satellite altimetry has been widely used in measuring ocean topography from space. The conventional altimeter system is the nadir radar altimeter system which has the limitations of one-dimensional measurement and is unable to get both high temporal and spatial resolution. The InSAR altimetry system using InSAR altimeter instead of nadir radar altimeter is an improvement which can get both high cross-track and along-track resolution and wide swath. However, the conventional SAR interferometry only can achieve meter level height accuracy. This paper focuses on a method of radar echo-tracking for InSAR altimeter system in order to correct the slant range measurements and finally to improve the height measurement accuracy to several centimeters＇ level. Radar slant range （from observed pixels to radar antenna） estimation error affects the height measurement accuracy badly, nevertheless not considered in the conventional SAR interferometry. The proposed method is ameliorated based on the traditional echo-model used in nadir radar altimeter system, focusing on the echo signals from observed pixels with different incident angles. Simulations of sea surface height measurements are performed in the last part of this paper, and the conclusions are drawn that, with corrected slant range, the accuracy of InSAR altimetry can be much better than the conventional SAR interferometry.

First order sea clutter cross section for bistatic shipborne HFSWR

This paper studies the development on the first order sea clutter cross section for bistatic high frequency surface wave radar (HFSWR). Based on the received first order electric field expression, a closed-form of cross sections is derived to account for the case of receiving antenna array being mounted on the shipborne platform. The uniform linear motion and sway motion components are assumed to be responsible for the observed differences in comparison with the bistatic fixed antenna case. Correspondingly, simulations are conducted to study the sea clutter spectral characteristics for these two cases versus different system parameters and sea state conditions. It is shown numerically that the forward motion component will spread the Bragg lines severely and the influence triggered by the sway motion can be explained as the Bessel function modulation of the ordinary sea clutter spectra. The obtained results have important implications in the application of shipborne HFSWR technology to ocean remote sensing and target detection.

An improved method of absolute calibration to satellite altimeter: A case study in the Yellow Sea, China

An improved absolute calibration technology based on indirect measurements was developed through two probative experiments, the performance of which was evaluated by applying the approach to in situ sea surface height （SSH） at the Tianheng Island （tidal gauge） and the satellite nadir （GPS buoy）. Using Geoid/MSS （mean sea surface） data, which accounted for a constant offset between nadir and onshore tidal gauge water levels, and TMD （tidal model driver）, which canceled out the time-varying offsets, nadir SSH （sea surface height） could be indirectly acquired at an onshore tidal gauge instead of from direct offshore observation. The approach extrapolated the onshore SSH out to the offshore nadir with an accuracy of （1.88±0.20） cm and a standard deviation of 3,3 cm, which suggested that the approach presented was feasible in absolute altimeter calibration/validation （Cal/Val）, and the approach enormously facilitated the obtaining SSH from the offshore nadir.