Target visibility estimation in a buoy mounted maritime forward scatter radar

A buoy mounted maritime forward scatter radar system has been under recent experimental investigation for the detection of small, low speed, low radar cross section (low detectability) maritime targets. One of the main issues regarding target detectability in such a low grazing angle system is the actual visibility of the target due to blocking by waves, especially at higher sea states. Currently experimentation is limited mainly to the lower sea states, mostly using shore mounted antennas in littoral environments; in higher seas and indeed in deep seas with moving antennas, experimentation is more logistically challenging and so initial investigations are being performed through modelling. Thus this paper investigates target observability through consideration of line of sight for selected maritime scenarios and radar topologies for the buoy mounted maritime forward scatter radar system in deep sea conditions.