Sea-clutter analysis at multiple wavelengths (L,C,X) for target-clutter contrast assessment in littoral waters

Abstract

This study is aimed at quantifying the statistics and nature of sea-clutter as seen from spaceborne platforms and assessing the target-clutter contrast in the Adelaide harbor area of South Australia. To this end a series of images in mixture of polarizations were collected over this area in typical wide area surveillance mode - ScanSAR single polarization images from TerraSAR-X, Dual-Polarization Wide Beam images from RadarSAT-2 and Full and Dual Polarization images from ALOS-PALSAR. Synchronized with the acquisitions (dawn/dusk orbit of SAR satellites) video over flights with a low light camera were performed to record the sea-state. AIS data was collected for the information on the larges vessels and meteorological buoy readings for surface wind, wave height and swell were noted.