The modeling and analysis of sea clutter are of great significance in radar target detection studies in marine environments. Sea clutter typically exhibits non-Gaussian characteristics and spatiotemporal correlations, posing challenges for modeling, especially when generating simulation data of continuous correlated non-Gaussian random processes. This paper proposes a novel method for sea clutter modeling. First, feature description functions are constructed to individually characterize the amplitude, temporal, and spatial correlations of sea clutter, allowing for an accurate depiction of its characteristics with fewer parameters. Subsequently, simulation data are generated based on these feature description functions, satisfying the amplitude distribution, temporal correlation, and spatial correlation characteristics of sea clutter. Additionally, complex signal forms are introduced in the underlying signal processing to generate texture and speckle components of sea clutter, enhancing the alignment of simulation data with actual data. Through comparison with measured sea clutter data, the proposed method has been shown to accurately simulate complex sea clutter with real-world characteristics.

Radar target detection in a sea clutter environment is of significant importance in both civilian and military applications, with the detection of small maneuvering targets being particularly challenging. To address this issue, this paper introduces the autocorrelation characteristics of sea clutter into orthogonal projection operations to suppress sea clutter and enhance the detection capability of small maneuvering targets on the sea surface. The proposed method first generates speckle components that are consistent with the correlation characteristics of the observed sea clutter. Then, it uses these speckle components to derive the feature subspace of the sea clutter and applies this subspace in an orthogonal projection suppression algorithm, thereby achieving effective suppression of the sea clutter. This method does not rely on the covariance matrix estimation of sea clutter from reference cells but instead directly utilizes the autocorrelation characteristics of the observed sea clutter data to obtain the feature subspace, making it more adaptable to different environments. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate that this method significantly suppresses sea clutter and effectively improves the performance of target detection on the sea surface.