TABLE OF CONTENTS The largest part of the Earth's surface lies beneath the sea (see Figure 1.1); events taking place in, on and directly above the oceans have an enormous impact on our lives. Consequently maritime remote sensing and surveillance are of great importance. Since its discovery during the 1930s, radar has played a central role in these activities. Much of their military development was driven by the circumstances of the Cold War; now this era is past and a different set of imperatives holds sway. Military surveillance does, however, remain a key requirement. Great progress has been made recently on non-military applications, particularly the remote sensing of the environment, of which the sea is the most important component. These newly emerging concerns, whether they are ecological or geo-political, currently define the requirements imposed on maritime radar systems. Nonetheless, the underlying principles of the systems' operation, and the interpretation of their output, remain the same; the body of knowledge developed in the twentieth century provides us with the tools with which to address the problems facing the radar engineer of the twenty-first.
This book attempts to bring together those aspects of Maritime Radar relating to scattering from the sea surface, and their exploitation in radar systems. The presentation aims to emphasise the unity and simplicity of the underlying principles and so should facilitate their application in these changing circumstances.
A wide variety of radars can be deployed to...
