RADAR SYSTEMS : AN INTRODCTION

( Lecture prepared for the delivery at the C.V.Raman College of Engg.,

Bhubaneswar, Orissa on Feb.02,2010 )

B.K.SARKAR.
ISRO CHAIR PROFESSOR
DEPT. OF E & ECE
IIT KHARAGPUR


12. High Resolution Imaging

Real array imaging radars obtain

Y direction resolution by virtue of the real antenna beam coverage on the
ground which is determined by the physical size of the antenna.


Finer resolution will require longer antennas


Radar images are composed of many dots or picture elements (Pixel) representing RCS
for that area on ground.

Darker area low RCS

Brighter area High RCS

Rougher the surface higher the RCS

Vegetation is moderately rough appear as grey or light grey in the radar image.

The aircraft flies along the track y-direction at velocity v.



Y- direction resolution is determined by the beamwidth while across the track, the
x-direction resolution is determined by the pulse length.



Resolution considerations:


If sufficient resolution is present in both range and cross-range, it may be possible to
construct a radar map of the target, resolving its individual scatterers



Resolution is the ability to separately detect multiple targets or multiple patterns on the
same target.

Targets can be resolved in four dimensions:

Range

Azimuth

Cross-range

Elevation cross range and

Doppler


Range resolution is the resolution of the multiple scatterers differing in their distance
from the radar

Cross range resolution is the separation of the scatterers differing in the dimension
normal to range

Horizontal scatterer separation requires azimuth cross-range resolution, vertical requires
elevation cross-range resolution.

Resolution of scatterers differing in Doppler shift requires Doppler resolution.


Range resolution:

is the ability to separate multiple targets at the same angular position but at
different ranges.


Radar mapping requires resolution for recognizing outlines, boundaries and detailed
differences of various mapped objects.


The required square resolution cell sizes for variety of objects on given below.


Item Square cell size, meters


Coastlines, Cities, Mountains 150

Major Highways, Large airfields 30

City streets, large buildings 15

Vehicles, Houses, Buildings 3
Pulse radars measure range by transmitting a pulse and timing the returned pulse from
the target.


Transmitted pulse direction by radar pulse period is T.



Assuming that range gates are of duration T, two adjacent points on the ground A and T
which are Rx apart can be resolved by their scattering two adjacent range gates as
shown










Where Rx is the resolution in the x direction or perpendicular to the track.
x
2R 2(R R)
t ; t
c c
2 R CT
or R
c 2
R
From thefig R
cos
c

2cos
+ D
= + t =
D
\ t = D =
D
D =
a
t
=
a
In matched transmit/receive radars, usually, the product of pulse duration and the
receiver bandwidth, B is unity, i.e







In the fig the radar has the max. measurable ranges, Rmax which is a function of
interpulse provide T




Beyond this range, the elapsed time between transmitted pulse and target return pulse
will include multiples of interpulse period T, making the measured range ambiguous.



- As an example of resolution along x-direction, consider a radar with a pulse duration of
seconds with a small look-down angle
x
1
B 1 or
B
C
R
2BCos
t = t =
\ D =
a
max
CT
R
2
=
( ) cos 1.0 a =
7
T 10
-
=
10 7
x
3 10 10
R cm 1500cm 15m
2
-

D = = =
Range resolution is a function of the transmitted waveform.

Two related factors determine a word resolving capability: compressed pulse width and
waveform bandwidth.

These factors are the result of a third waveform property.


This property is a waves autocorrelation function and is the actual determinant of its
range resolving capability.


Wave evaluation is accomplished using the ambiguity function.

Range resolution can thus be defined in three ways:

By compressed pulse width

By signal bandwidth

By signal autocorrelation function













pulse width if there is no compression

Compressed pulse width

B Echo waveforms matched bandwidth Hz
( )
C
CT
R
2
T
R C
2
C
R
2B
TA
R C
2
- D
D
D
D
R range resolution in meters D -
t -
c
t -


Width of the echo signals auto-correlation function in seconds


Enhanced range resolution is achieved through pulse compression which eliminates the
need to trade target detection capability for range resolution.

Resolution in the y-director (cross range resolution)

Cross-range is resolved width antenna beamwidths. Cross-range resolution of
any radar is given by


R range from radar to target (in meters)

3dB Beamwidth of the antenna in the direction of the resolution

A circular antenna of diameter D with uniform current distribution will have 3dB
beamwidth in radian as




A
t -
Ry R (if isinradian) D q q ;
radian, wavelength
D
l
q l -
y
R
R
D
l
\ D ;
Example: A radar with a transmit wavelength , (f = 20GHz), a range to

ground R=5km and an antenna length of l = 5meters will have cross range resolution
of




Doppler Resolution:

Radar resolution can also refer to the ability of a radar to resolve target radial velocity


The Doppler frequency f
D
produced by a single-point scatterer at radial velocity is




Doppler resolution of a radar is fundamentally related to coherent-integration time of the
echo signal or signal gathering time.




5
2
5 10 1.5
Ry 15m
5 10

D = =

1.5cm l =
t t
D D
2v 2fv
f for f f
c
= =
l
?
t
J
D
1
fd
T
D
Where fd- Doppler resolution in Hz


TD- the time spent gathering data for the analysis (seconds)


In sample systems, the data gathering time (look time or dwell time) is the sample period
times the number of pulses gathered. Pulse radars sample targets at PRF ratio




Where N
L
the no.of samples in a look.
f
s
the sample rate, which in a pulsed radar equals the PRF

Coherent integration can be achieved in several ways.


A simple bandpass filter tuned to a Doppler shifted signal will coherently integrate the
signal over an integration time that is approximately equal to the reciprocal of the filter
bandwidth.


Now a days, it is common to carry out Doppler filtering of sampled echo data by using
discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) method.
L
D
s
N
T
f
=
Example:

A radar transmits a 3.5s pulse at 5.70GHz with a bandwidth of 4.0MHz. The PRF is 550
pps and 64 pulses are processed together. The antenna beamwidth is 1.20. Find how far
targets must be spaced from one another at a range of 20km in range, azimuth cross
range and Doppler.

Ans:
The radar uses pulse compression and the BW is much greater than the reciprocal of
the pulsewidth.

The range resolution from eqn is 37.5m. The cross range resolution at 20km is The
Doppler resolution is Thus two scatterers at 20km range must be separated by at least
37.5m in range or 418.8m in azimuth cross-range or 8.6Hz in Doppler to be resolved.

Pulse Compression:

is the process of transmitting a wide pulse (for energy and detection) and
processing it to narrow pulse (for range resolution).

The transmitted pulse is called the expanded pulse and the processed pulse is called
the compressed pulse.

The compression ratio is

E
CR
C
t
=
t
= the expanded (transmitted) pulse width

= compressed (processed) pulse width





Two diff primary classes of pulse compression are used in radars:



analog where the transmit wave contains frequency modulation
across the pulse


and


digital where the transmit pulse is phase coded.

E
t
C
t
Pulse compression wave has BW which is much greater than the reciprocal of the
expanded pulse width and is approx. reciprocal of the compressed pulse width.








The received echoes are compressed either in a filter matched to the transmit wave or
by the process of correlation with a delayed copy of the transmit wave.


Generally, analog pulse compression is done with matched filters and digital is done by
correlation.

Matched Filter:


A filter matched to a given input signal is an optimum filter for signal reception when the
received signal is corrupted by additive white Gaussian noise.


E
C
1
B
1
B
where B is the BW
t
t
?
The filter is optimum in several senses.

These include maximizing the output signal to noise ratio and maximinzing the
accuracy of parameter estimation (for parameters such as delay, Doppler frequency and
signal amplitude)

A matched filter to an input signal Si(t) with spectrum Si(f) is defined in terms of the
matched filter transfer function H(f) and the corresponding impulse response function
h(t) as follows:





Where G is gain (or loss) of the filter. is a fixed delay through the filter. H(f) is the
Fourier transform of h(t). The asterisk refers to the conjugate form.

The basic relationships stated above, assuming unity gain and the fixed time delay of
zero through the filter, are




j2 f
H(f ) GSi *(f )e
and h(t) GSi *( t)
- P t
=
= t -
H(f ) GSi *(f )
and h(t) GSi *( t)
=
= -
Matched filters are not normally designed to match an input signal. Instead, the match is
made to the transmitted waveform which remains constant, regardless of the target.


It is possible to design filters matched to very wideband waveforms


A well known type of matched filter for high resolution radar is the pulse-compression
filter.


Ambiguity function



It reveals the range-Doppler position of ambiguous responses and defines the range and
Doppler resolution



The ambiguity function of a waveform Si(t) can be defined as the
cross-correlation of a Doppler shifted version Si(t) exp(j2fDt) of the waveform with the
unshifted waveform.


D
X( , f ) t
From the definition of cross-correlation, we can write






It is common to refer to the absolute value of as the ambiguity surface
of the waveform


The shape of the ambiguity surface is entirely dependent upon waveform parameters.

A normalized expression is obtained by requiring that




With this normalization, the magnitude of the ambiguity function has a value at (0,0) of
unity.

( )
( )
D
D
j2 f t
D 1 1
j2 f t
1 1
X( , f ) S (t)e S * t dt
S (t)S * t e dt
a
P
-

P
-


t = - t



= - t

D
X( , f ) t
( )
2
1
S t dt 1

-
=

The basic outline of a matched filter pulse compression system is shown below:
The COHO and a short pulse are fed to H(f), the expansion filter, where the transmit
waveform is generated.


The output of the H(f) has a pulse width equal to the expanded pulse width.


The expanded pulse is frequency shifted and transmitted.


The echoes and interference are received, frequency shifted back to the COHO freq.
(plus the Doppler shift) and fed to the compression filter.


The response of the compression filter is the complex of that of the expansion filter.

If H(f) = the Fourier transform of h(t)

Then H*(f) = the Fourier transform of h(-t)


Thus any phase change introduced into the signal by H(f) (such as a frequency sweep
across the pulse) is undone in H*(f).
If a short burst of the COHO is expanded in H(f), approximately, but not exactly, the
same short burst of COHO is recovered in H*(f)


Because of the finite nature of the signal used, the compressed wave is not exactly the
same as COHO pulse which was expanded


This introduces the undesired characteristic that the compressed pulse leaks into times
other than that occupied by the echo.



This range leakage allows large interfering signals to hide small desired echoes




For this reason, a mismatched must be introduced the result of which is the
compressed pulse (with window).


This mismatch reduces the leakage with the penalty of increasing the compressed pulse
width.