High-resolution wide area remote sensing for HF radar track registration

Skywave radar exploit the ionospheric medium to illuminate and track targets at long ranges over vast areas. To achieve optimal performance in the dynamic clutter and noise environment cognitive radar techniques are used to advise waveform parameter and coordinate registration for localisation of targets. Here we introduce an experimental high spatial resolution support-radar that remotely senses surface backscatter clutter. A robust algorithm is described for analysis of the Doppler spectra to determine land or sea backscatter origin. The sensed land-sea interfaces can thus be used for direct registration of nearby targets or assimilation into an ionospheric map.