Improving Navigation Safety by Utilizing Statistical Method of Target Detection on the Background of Atmospheric Precipitation

This paper presents a fundamentally new approach to improving the effectiveness of navigation radars operating in rainfall conditions. Traditional ship radars operating on horizontal polarization have limitations in terms of rain interference suppression efficiency. To address this problem, we propose an innovative navigation target detection method that exploits the unique properties of 45° or circular polarization. Specifically, our method exploits the differences in polarization characteristics of stable navigation targets and fluctuating interfering targets. Theoretical analysis and model experiments demonstrate the constancy of the values of the ellipticity parameter of scattered waves, regardless of rain intensity, for both rain interferers and surface metallic objects. The practical application of our research results has great prospects, allowing detection regardless of the noise-to-signal ratio by including an additional channel for 45° or circularly polarized waves and implementing simple mathematical functions.