Encyclopedia
RADAR is a system that uses
radio waves to detect, determine the direction and distance and/or speed of objects such as
aircraft,
ships, terrain or
rain and map them. A transmitter emits radio waves, which are reflected by the target, and detected by a receiver, typically in the same location as the transmitter. Although the radio signal returned is usually very weak, radio signals can easily be amplified, so radar can detect objects at ranges where other emission, such as
sound or
visible light, would be too weak to detect. Radar is used in many contexts, including
meteorological detection of precipitation,
air traffic control,
police detection of
speeding traffic, and by the military.
The term
RADAR was coined in 1941 as an acronym for
Radio
Detection
and
Ranging. This acronym of American origin replaced the previously used British abbreviation
RDF . The term has since entered the
English language as a standard word,
radar, losing the capitalization in the process.
History
Several inventors,
scientists, and engineers contributed to the
development of radar. The use of radio waves to detect "the presence of distant metallic objects via radio waves" was first implemented in 1904 by Christian Hülsmeyer, who demonstrated the feasibility of detecting the presence of a ship in dense fog, but not its distance. He received a Reichspatent patent Nr. 165546 for his pre-radar device.
Prior to the
Second World War, developments by the Americans, the Germans, the French . , and the British , led to the first real radars. Hungarian Zoltán Bay produced a working model by 1936 at the Tungsram laboratory in the same vein.
The war precipitated the research to find better resolution, more portability, more features for that new defensive weapon. Post-war years have seen the use of radar in fields as diverse as
air traffic control,
weather monitoring,
astrometry and road speed control.
Principles
Reflection
Electromagnetic waves reflect from any large change in the
dielectric or
diamagnetic constants. This means that a solid object in
air or
vacuum, or other significant change in atomic density between the object and what's surrounding it, will usually scatter radar waves. This is particularly true for
electrically conductive materials, such as
metal and
carbon fibre, making radar particularly well suited to the detection of
aircraft and
ships. Radar absorbing material, containing resistive and sometimes
magnetic substances, is used on military vehicles to reduce radar reflection. This is the radio equivalent of painting something a dark colour.
Radar
waves scatter in a variety of ways depending on the size of the radio wave and the shape of the target. If the wavelength is much shorter than the target's size, the wave will bounce off in a way similar to the way light is reflected by a
mirror. If the wavelength is much longer than the size of the target, the target is
polarized , like a
dipole antenna. This is described by
Rayleigh scattering, an effect that creates the
Earth's blue sky and red
sunsets. When the two length scales are comparable, there may be resonances. Early radars used very long
wavelengths that were larger than the targets and received a vague signal, whereas some modern systems use shorter
wavelengths that can image objects as small as a loaf of bread or smaller.
Short radio waves reflect from curves and
corners, in a way similar to glint from a rounded piece of
glass. The most reflective targets for short wavelengths have 90°
angles between the reflective surfaces. A structure consisting of three flat surfaces meeting at a single corner, like the corner on a box, will always reflect waves entering its opening directly back at the source. These so-called
corner reflectors are commonly used as radar reflectors to make otherwise difficult-to-detect objects easier to detect, and are often found on boats in order to improve their detection in a rescue situation and to reduce collisions. For similar reasons, objects attempting to avoid detection will angle their surfaces in a way to eliminate inside corners and avoid surfaces and edges perpendicular to likely detection directions, which leads to "odd" looking
stealth aircraft. These precautions do not completely eliminate reflection because of
diffraction, especially at longer wavelengths. Half wavelength long wires or strips of conducting material, such as chaff, are very reflective but do not direct the scattered energy back toward the source. The extent to which an object reflects or scatters radio waves is called its radar cross section.
Radar equation
The amount of power
Pr returning to the receiving antenna is given by the radar equation:
where*'
- Pt = transmitter power
- Gt = gain of the transmitting antenna
- Ar = effective aperture of the receiving antenna
- s = radar cross section, or scattering coefficient, of the target
- F = pattern propagation factor
- Rt = distance from the transmitter to the target
- Rr = distance from the target to the receiver.
In the common case where the transmitter and the receiver are at the same location,
Rt =
Rr and the term
Rt2 Rr2 can be replaced by
R4, where
R is the range.
This yields:
This shows that the received power declines as the fourth power of the range, which means that the reflected power from distant targets is very, very small.
The equation above with
F = 1 is a simplification for
vacuum without interference. The propagation factor accounts for the effects of
multipath and shadowing and depends on the details of the environment. In a real-world situation, pathloss effects should also be considered.
Other mathematical developments in radar signal processing include time-frequency analysis , as well as the
chirplet transform which makes use of the fact that radar returns from moving targets typically "chirp" .
Polarization
In the transmitted radar signal, the electric field is perpendicular to the direction of propagation, and this direction of the electric field is the
Polarization of the wave. Radars use horizontal, vertical, and circular polarization to detect different types of reflections. For example,
circular polarization is used to minimize the interference caused by rain.
Linear polarization returns usually indicate metal surfaces, and help a search radar ignore rain. Random polarization returns usually indicate a
fractal surface, such as rocks or
soil, and are used by
navigational radars.
Interference
Radar systems must overcome several different sources of unwanted signals in order to focus only on the actual targets of interest. These unwanted signals may originate from internal and external sources, both passive and active. The ability of the radar system to overcome these unwanted signals defines its
signal-to-noise ratio : the higher a system's SNR, the better it is in isolating actual targets from the surrounding noise signals.
Noise
Signal noise is an internal source of random variations in the signal, which is inherently generated to some degree by all electronic components . Noise typically appears as random variations superimposed on the desired echo signal received in the radar receiver. The lower the power of the desired signal, the more difficult it is to discern it from the noise . Therefore, the most important noise sources appear in the receiver and much effort is made to minimize these factors. Noise figure is a measure of the noise produced by a receiver compared to an ideal receiver, and this needs to be minimized.
Noise is also generated by external sources, most importantly the natural thermal radiation of the background scene surrounding the target of interest. In modern radar systems, due to the high performance of their receivers, the internal noise is typically about equal to or lower than the external scene noise. An exception is if the radar is aimed upwards at clear sky, where the scene is so cold that it generates very little thermal noise.
Clutter
Clutter refers to actual radio frequency echoes returned from targets which are by definition uninteresting to the radar operators in general. Such targets mostly include natural objects such as ground, sea, precipitation , sand storms, animals , atmospheric
turbulence, and other atmospheric effects . Clutter may also be returned from man-made objects such as buildings and, intentionally, by radar countermeasures such as chaff.
Some clutter may also be caused by a long waveguide between the radar transceiver and the antenna. In a typical
PPI radar with a rotating antenna, this will usually be seen as a "sun" or "sunburst" in the centre of the display as the receiver responds to echoes from dust particles and misguided RF in the waveguide. Adjusting the timing between when the transmitter sends a pulse and when the receiver stage is enabled will generally reduce the sunburst without affecting the accuracy of the range, since most sunburst is caused by diffused transmit pulse reflected before it leaves the antenna.
While some clutter sources may be undesirable for some radar applications , they may be desirable for others . Clutter is considered a passive interference source, since it only appears in response to radar signals sent by the radar.
There are several methods of detecting and neutralizing clutter. Many of these methods rely on the fact that clutter tends to appear static between radar scans. Therefore, when comparing subsequent scans echoes, desirable targets will appear to move and all stationary echoes can be eliminated. Sea clutter can be reduced by using horizontal polarization, while rain is reduced with
circular polarization . Other methods attempt to increase the signal-to-clutter ratio.
CFAR is a method relying on the fact that clutter returns far outnumber echoes from targets of interest. The receiver's gain is automatically adjusted to maintain a constant level of overall visible clutter. While this does not help detect targets masked by stronger surrounding clutter, it does help to distinguish strong target sources. In the past, radar AGC was electronically controlled and affected the gain of the entire radar receiver. As radars evolved, AGC became computer-software controlled, and affected the gain with greater granularity, in specific detection cells.
Clutter may also originate from
multipath echoes from valid targets due to ground reflection, atmospheric ducting or ionospheric reflection/
refraction. This specific clutter type is especially bothersome, since it appears to move and behave like other normal targets of interest, thereby creating a ghost. In a typical scenario, an aircraft echo is multipath-reflected from the ground below, appearing to the receiver as an identical target below the correct one. The radar may try to unify the targets, reporting the target at an incorrect height, or - worse - eliminating it on the basis of jitter or a physical impossibility. These problems can be overcome by incorporating a ground map of the radar's surroundings and eliminating all echoes which appear to originate below ground or above a certain height.
Jamming
Radar jamming refers to RF signals originating from sources outside the radar, transmitting in the radar's frequency and thereby masking targets of interest. Jamming may be intentional or unintentional . Jamming is considered an active interference source, since it is initiated by elements outside the radar and in general unrelated to the radar signals.
Jamming is problematic to radar since the jamming signal only needs to travel one-way whereas the radar echoes travel two-ways and are therefore significantly reduced in power by the time they return to the radar receiver. Jammers therefore need be much less powerful than their jammed radars in order to effectively mask targets along the line of sight from the jammer to the radar . Jammers have an added effect of affecting radars along other line-of-sights, due to the radar receiver's sidelobes .
Mainlobe jamming can generally only be reduced by narrowing the mainlobe solid angle, and can never fully be eliminated when directly facing a jammer which uses the same frequency and polarization as the radar. Sidelobe jamming can be overcome by reducing receiving sidelobes in the radar antenna design and by using an omnidirectional antenna to detect and disregard non-mainlobe signals. Other anti-jamming techniques are frequency hopping and
polarization. See Electronic counter-counter-measures for details.
Interference has recently become a problem for
C-band meteorological radars with the proliferation of 5.4 GHz band WiFi equipment.
Radar signal processing
Distance measurement
Transit time
Principle of radar distance measurement using pulse round trip time.
One way to measure the distance to an object is to transmit a short pulse of radio signal, and measure the time it takes for the reflection to return. The distance is one-half the product of round trip time and the speed of the signal. where c is the speed of light in a vacuum, and t is the round trip time. For radar, the speed of signal is the speed of light, making the round trip times very short for terrestrial ranging. Accurate distance measurement requires high-performance electronics.
The receiver cannot detect the return while the signal is being sent out – there is no way to tell if the signal it hears is the original or the return. This means that a radar has a distinct minimum range, which is the length of the pulse multiplied by the speed of light, divided by two. In order to detect closer targets one must use a shorter pulse length.
A similar effect imposes a specific maximum range as well. If the return from the target comes in when the next pulse is being sent out, once again the receiver cannot tell the difference. In order to maximize range, one wants to use longer times between pulses, the inter-pulse time.
These two effects tend to be at odds with each other, and it is not easy to combine both good short range and good long range in a single radar. This is because the short pulses needed for a good minimum range broadcast have less total energy, making the returns much smaller and the target harder to detect. This could be offset by using more pulses, but this would shorten the maximum range again. So each radar uses a particular type of signal. Long range radars tend to use long pulses with long delays between them, and short range radars use smaller pulses with less time between them. This pattern of pulses and pauses is known as the Pulse Repetition Frequency , and is one of the main ways to characterize a radar. As electronics have improved many radars now can change their PRF.
Frequency modulation
Another form of distance measuring radar is based on
frequency modulation. Frequency comparison between two signals is considerably more accurate, even with older electronics, than timing the signal. By changing the frequency of the returned signal and comparing that with the original, the difference can be easily measured.
This technique can be used in radar systems, and is often found in aircraft radar
altimeters. In these systems a "carrier" radar signal is frequency modulated in a predictable way, typically varying up and down with a
sine wave or sawtooth pattern at audio frequencies. The signal is then sent out from one antenna and received on another, typically located on the bottom of the aircraft, and the signal can be continuously compared.
Since the signal frequency is changing, by the time the signal returns to the aircraft the broadcast has shifted to some other frequency. The amount of that shift is greater over longer times, so greater frequency differences mean a longer distance, the exact amount being the "ramp speed" selected by the electronics. The amount of shift is therefore directly related to the distance travelled, and can be displayed on an instrument. This signal processing is similar to that used in speed detecting
Doppler radar. See the article on continuous wave radar for more information.
Speed measurement
Speed is the change in
distance to an object with respect to
time. Thus the existing system for measuring distance, combined with a little
memory to see where the target last was, is enough to measure speed. At one time the memory consisted of a user making
grease-pencil marks on the radar screen, and then calculating the speed using a
slide rule. Modern radar systems perform the equivalent operation faster and more accurately using computers.
However, if the transmitter's output is coherent , there is another effect that can be used to make almost instant speed measurements , known as the
Doppler effect. Most modern radar systems use this principle in the pulse-doppler radar system. Return signals from targets are shifted away from this base frequency via the Doppler effect enabling the calculation of the speed of the object relative to the radar. The
Doppler effect is only able to determine the relative speed of the target along the line of sight from the radar to the target. Any component of target velocity perpendicular to this line of sight cannot be determined by Doppler alone---tracking the target's azimuth over time must be used.
It is also possible to make a radar without any pulsing, known as a continuous-wave radar , by sending out a very pure signal of a known frequency. CW radar is ideal for determining the radial component of a target's velocity, but it cannot determine the target's range. CW radar is typically used by traffic enforcement to measure vehicle speed quickly and accurately where range is not important.
Reduction of interference effects
Signal processing is employed in radar systems to reduce the interference effects. Signal processing techniques include moving target indication , pulse doppler, moving target detection processors, correlation with secondary surveillance radar targets and space-time adaptive processing . Constant false alarm rate and digital terrain model processing are also used in clutter environments.
Radar engineering
Antenna design
Radio signals broadcast from a single antenna will spread out in all directions, and likewise a single antenna will receive signals equally from all directions. This leaves the radar with the problem of deciding where the target object is located.
Early systems tended to use omni-directional broadcast antennas, with directional receiver antennas which were pointed in various directions. For instance the first system to be deployed,
Chain Home, used two straight antennas at
right angles for reception, each on a different display. The maximum return would be detected with an antenna at right angles to the target, and a minimum with the antenna pointed directly at it . The operator could determine the direction to a target by
rotating the antenna so one display showed a maximum while the other shows a minimum.
One serious limitation with this type of solution is that the broadcast is sent out in all directions, so the amount of energy in the direction being examined is
a small part of that transmitted. To get a reasonable amount of power on the "target", the transmitting aerial should also be directional.
Parabolic reflector
More modern systems used a steerable
parabolic "dish" to create a tight broadcast beam, typically using the same dish as the receiver. Such systems often combined two radar frequencies in the same antenna in order to allow automatic steering, or
radar lock.
Slotted waveguide
Applied similarly to the parabolic reflector the slotted waveguide is moved mechanically to scan and is particularly suitable for non-tracking surface scan systems, where the vertical pattern may remain constant. Owing to lower cost and less wind exposure, shipboard, airport surface, and harbour surveillance radars now use this in preference to the parabolic antenna.
Phased array
Another method of steering is used in a phased array radar. This uses an
array of similar aerials suitably spaced, the phase of the signal to each individual aerial being controlled so that the signal is reinforced in the desired direction and cancels in other directions. If the individual aerials are in one plane and the signal is fed to each aerial in phase with all others then the signal will reinforce in a direction perpendicular to that plane. By altering the relative phase of the signal fed to each aerial the direction of the beam can be moved because the direction of constructive interference will move. Because phased array radars require no physical movement the beam can scan at thousands of degrees per second, fast enough to irradiate and track many individual targets, and still run a wide-ranging search periodically. By simply turning some of the antennas on or off, the beam can be spread for searching, narrowed for tracking, or even split into two or more virtual radars. However, the beam cannot be effectively steered at small angles to the plane of the array, so for full coverage multiple arrays are required, typically disposed on the faces of a triangular pyramid .
Phased array radars have been in use since the earliest years of radar use in
World War II, but limitations of the electronics led to fairly poor accuracy. Phased array radars were originally used for
missile defense. They are the heart of the ship-borne
Aegis combat system, and the
Patriot Missile System, and are increasingly used in other areas because the lack of moving parts makes them more reliable, and sometimes permits a much larger effective antenna, useful in fighter aircraft applications that offer only confined space for mechanical scanning.
As the price of electronics has fallen, phased array radars have become more and more common. Almost all modern military radar systems are based on phased arrays, where the small additional cost is far offset by the improved reliability of a system with no moving parts. Traditional moving-antenna designs are still widely used in roles where cost is a significant factor such as air traffic surveillance, weather radars and similar systems.
Phased array radars are also valued for use in aircraft, since they can track multiple targets. The first aircraft to use phased array radar was the
Mikoyan MiG-31. The MiG-31M's SBI-16
Zaslon phased array radar is considered to be the world's most powerful fighter radar.
Frequency bands
The traditional band names originated as code-names during
World War II and are still in military and aviation use throughout the world in the 21st century. They have been adopted in the United States by the
IEEE, and internationally by the
ITU. Most countries have additional regulations to control which parts of each band are available for civilian or military use.
Other users of the radio spectrum, such as the broadcasting and electronic countermeasures industries, have replaced the traditional military designations with their own systems.
Radar frequency bands
| Band Name | Frequency Range | Wavelength Range | Notes |
|---|
| HF | 3-30 MHz | 10-100 m | coastal radar systems, over-the-horizon radars; 'high frequency' |
| P | < 300 MHz | 1 m+ | 'P' for 'previous', applied retrospectively to early radar systems |
| VHF | 50-330 MHz | 0.9-6 m | very long range, ground penetrating; 'very high frequency' |
| UHF | 300-1000 MHz | 0.3-1 m | very long range , ground penetrating, foliage penetrating; 'ultra high frequency' |
| L | 1-2 GHz | 15-30 cm | long range air traffic control and surveillance; 'L' for 'long' |
| S | 2-4 GHz | 7.5-15 cm | terminal air traffic control, long range weather, marine radar; 'S' for 'short' |
| C | 4-8 GHz | 3.75-7.5 cm | Satellite transponders; a compromise between X and S bands; weather |
| X | 8-12 GHz | 2.5-3.75 cm | missile guidance, marine radar, weather, medium-resolution mapping and ground surveillance; in the USA the narrow range 10.525 GHz ±25 MHz is used for airport radar. Named X band because the frequency was a secret during WW2. |
| Ku | 12-18 GHz | 1.67-2.5 cm | high-resolution mapping, satellite altimetry; frequency just under K band |
| K | 18-27 GHz | 1.11-1.67 cm | from German kurz, meaning 'short'; limited use due to absorption by water vapour, so Ku and Ka were used instead for surveillance. K-band is used for detecting clouds by meteorologists, and by police for detecting speeding motorists. K-band radar guns operate at 24.150 ± 0.100 GHz. |
| Ka | 27-40 GHz | 0.75-1.11 cm | mapping, short range, airport surveillance; frequency just above K band Photo radar, used to trigger cameras which take pictures of license plates of cars running red lights, operates at 34.300 ± 0.100 GHz. |
| mm | 40-300 GHz | 7.5 mm - 1 mm | millimetre band, subdivided as below. The letter designators appear to be random, and the frequency ranges dependent on waveguide size. Multiple letters are assigned to these bands by different groups. These are from Baytron, a now defunct company that made test equipment. |
| Q | 40-60 GHz | 7.5 mm - 5 mm | Used for Military communication. | |
| V | 50-75 GHz | 6.0 - 4 mm | Very strongly absorbed by the atmosphere. | |
| E | 60-90 GHz | 6.0 - 3.33 mm | |
| W | 75-110 GHz | 2.7 - 4.0 mm | used as a visual sensor for experimental autonomous vehicles, high-resolution meteorological observation, and imaging. |
Radar modulators
Modulators are sometimes called pulsers and act to provide the short pulses of power to the
magnetron. In this way, the transmitted pulse of RF radiation is kept to a defined, and usually very short, duration. Modulators consist of a high voltage pulse generator formed from a HV supply, a pulse forming network or line and a high voltage switch such as a
thyratron.
A
klystron tube is an amplifier, so it can be modulated by its low power input signal.
Radar Coolant
Coolanol and PAO are the two main coolants used to cool Airborn Radar equipment.
Navy has instituted a program for Pollution Prevention to reduce or eliminate the volume and toxicity of waste, air emissions, and effluent discharges. Because of this Coolanol is used less often today.
PAO is a synthetic lubricant composition is a blend of a polyol ester admixed with effective amounts of an antioxidant, yellow metal pacifier and rust inhibitors. The polyol ester blend includes a major proportion of poly ester blend formed by reacting poly partial esters with at least one C7 to C12 carboxylic acid mixed with an ester formed by reacting a polyol having at least two hydroxyl groups and at least one C8-C10 carboxylic acid. Preferably, the acids are linear and avoid those which can cause odours during use. Effective additives include secondary arylamine antioxidants, triazole derivative yellow metal pacifier and an amino acid derivative and substituted primary and secondary amine and/or diamine rust inhibitor.
A synthetic coolant/lubricant composition, comprising an ester mixture of:
50 to 80 weight percent of poly ester formed by reacting a poly partial ester and at least one linear monocarboxylic acid having from 6 to 12 carbon atoms, and 20 to 50 weight percent of a polyol ester formed by reacting a polyol having 5 to 8 carbon atoms and at least two hydroxyl groups with at least one linear monocarboxylic acid having from 7 to 12 carbon atoms, the weight percents based on the total weight of the composition.
Radar functions and roles
Detection and search radars
- Early Warning Radar Systems
- Target Acquisition Radar Systems
- Surface Search Radar Systems
- Height Finder Radar Systems
- Gap Filler Radar Systems
Threat radars
- Target Tracking Systems
- Multi-Function Systems
- Fire Control Systems
- Acquisition Mode
- Semiautomatic Tracking Mode
- Manual Tracking Mode
- Airborne Intercept Radars
Missile guidance systems
Battlefield and reconnaissance radar
- Battlefield Surveillance Systems
- Battlefield Surveillance Radars
- Countermortar/Counterbattery Systems
- Air Mapping Systems
Air Traffic Control and Navigation
Space and range instrumentation Radar systems
- Space Tracking Systems
- Range Instrumentation Systems
- Video Relay/Downlink Systems
- Space-Based Radar
Weather-sensing Radar systems
See also
Further reading
External links
Notes
References
