First order sea clutter cross section for HF hybrid sky-surface wave radar

This paper presents a modified method to simulate the first order sea clutter cross section for high frequency (HF) hybrid sky-surface wave radar, based on the existent model applied in the bistatic HF surface wave radar. The modification focuses on the derivation of Bragg scattering frequency and the ionosphere dispersive impact on the clutter resolution cell. Meanwhile, an analytic expression to calculate the dispersive transfer function is derived on condition that the ionosphere is spherical stratified. Simulation results explicate the variance of the cross section after taking account of the influence triggered by the actual clutter resolution cell, and the spectral width of the first order sea clutter is defined so as to compare the difference. Eventually, experiment results are present to verify the rationality and validity of the proposed method.