Sea clutter

Radar echoes from breaking waves, sea spray and backscatter appear on the radar screen as clutter. The clutter appears centered around ownship, which reduces performance of short range target detection. These echoes are not repetitive or consistent in position or size. With high winds and extreme conditions, echoes from sea clutter may cause dense background clutter in the shape of an almost solid disc. The Sea anti-clutter control is used to reduce the clutter, improving the quality of the radar image.

The clutter range is dependent on the radar antenna height and the sea state, although other factors can also influence the extent of the clutter.

The Sea anti-clutter control helps to improve target detection by reducing the visibility of clutter on the radar screen.

The Sea anti-clutter control applies maximum attenuation at zero range (ownship), and reduces the attenuation as the range increases.

The Sea anti-clutter control can be manually adjusted or set to automatic.