Measurement of S band clutter statistics using quasi-deconvolution filter for a phase coded waveform

This paper describes a signal processing technique by which radar clutterdata collected with a derivative phase modulated waveform was used to evaluate sea clutter statistical parameters. Two processing options for recovering full bandwidth cluttersamples from the radar return signal are matched filterand deconvolution. Both processors may be implemented in the form of a transversal filter ( finite impulse responseor FIR). The FIR matched filteroutput contains certain errors, such as filter time sidelobe responses, which are not present at the output of a pure deconvolutionprocess. A transversal filter approximation to deconvolution, quasi- deconvolution, contains similar errors but greatly reduced in magnitude. We have shown that the use of quasi- deconvolution(QD) filters make it possible to accurately estimate two key amplitude distribution statistics for surface clutter: mean and mean/median ration.