A recursive algorithm for long-term space-time correlated sea clutter simulation

High fidelity simulation of continuous correlated sea clutter with long-term space-time correlation characteristics has always been a challenge. A memoryless nonlinear transform (MNLT) based sea clutter intensity simulation followed by a continuous phase retrieval method based on alternating projections (AP) algorithm provides a kind of solution with promising performance. In this paper, a recursive algorithm is proposed which can be used to replace the fast Fourier transform (FFT) for long-term sea clutter phase retrieval under the constrain of the desired time-varying Doppler spectra. Simulation results based on the parameter estimation of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Fynmeet radar data demonstrate that the proposed recursive algorithm generates complex sea clutter data with exact space-time correlation characteristics as specified, while with much less calculation.