Single Data Set Side-lobe Cancellation Method for Non-stationary Clutter Suppression in HF Mixed Mode Surface Wave Radar

High-frequency mixed mode surface wave radar is a new kind of over-the-horizon radar system and is capable of early warning and marine exclusive economic zone monitoring. Due to combination of the ionospheric channel and the sea surface, the inhomogeneous background makes the clutter statistics change rapidly in even adjacent range cells. This sample starved scenario degrades the clutter suppression performance for conventional adaptive filter methods which utilize the training data from neighboring range cells. In this paper, a novel single data set side-lobe cancellation method is proposed to overcome this challenge. Firstly, the non-stationary property of the first-order sea clutter using measured data is analyzed. Then, the clutter suppression algorithm, which is called SDS-SLC, is presented. Finally, the validity of the proposed method is verified by the experimental data and the comparison result shows it outperforms other traditional methods.