Radar System

RAdio Detection And Ranging.

Liu Haining
elang0214@163.com
18604020132
 OUTLINE
 Background
 Brief History
 Radar Principles
 Radar Equations
 Environment
Pre-Radar Aircraft Detection – Optical Systems
Pre-Radar Aircraft Detection – Acoustic Systems
 RADAR
 “RADAR” was officially coined as an acronym by U.S. Navy Lieutenant Comm

ander Samuel M. Tucker and F. R. Furth in November 1940. The acronym was

by agreement adopted in 1943 by the Allied powers of World War II and therea

fter received general international acceptance.

It refers to electronic equipment that detects the presence of objects

by using reflected electromagnetic energy.

Under some conditions a radar system can measure the direction, h

eight, distance, course and speed of these objects.

 RADAR
 The frequency of electromagnetic energy used for radar is unaff
ected by darkness and also penetrates fog and clouds. This per
mits radar systems to determine the position of airplanes, ships,
or other obstacles that are invisible to the naked eye because of
distance, darkness, or weather.

 Modern radar can extract widely more information from a targe

t's echo signal than its range. But the calculating of the range by
measuring the delay time is one of its most important functions.
 Brief History
 First radar test (1904)
 German high frequency engineer Christian Hulsmeyer
 Traffic supervision on water: he measures the running time of electr
o-magnetic waves to a metal ship and back

 An aircraft was first located by radar in 1930

 Lawrence A. Hyland (Naval Research Lab)

 By 1939 England had established a chain of radar stations along it

s south and east coasts (“Home Chain”).

 Brief History
 By the 1940s and the outbreak of World War II, the fir
st useful radar systems were in place. Germany, Fr
ance, Great Britain and the United States all used ra
dar to navigate ships, guide airplanes, and detect ene
my crafts.
 Brief History
 During the 1980s and 1990s, due to the developments
of novel solid-state electronics and the escalating avail
ability of inexpensive powerful data processing equi
pment, innovative modulation methods, signal generati
on and processing techniques have gradually been ap
plied to radar system, which had been a great breakthr
ough.
Brief History
 Radar Functions
In most applications, radars perform one or more of t
he following functions.

 Search (also called surveillance), the examination of

a volume of space for potential targets

 Detection, determining that a target is present

 Position measurement of target range, angular coord

inates, and sometimes radial velocity
 Radar Functions

 Tracking, processing successive measurements to

estimate target path.

 Imaging, generating a two (or three) dimensional

image of a target or area, frequently using synthe
tic-aperture processing.

 Classification, discrimination and identification, d

etermining the characteristics, type, and identity
of a target.
How Radar Works- Electromagnetic wave

Radar based on electromagnetic energy pulses, The radio-

frequency energy is transmitted to and reflected from the
reflecting object. A small portion of the reflected energy
returns to the radar set. This returned energy is called an
ECHO, just as it is in sound terminology. Radar sets use the
echo to determine the direction and distance of the
reflecting object.
 Radar principles –Distance determination
The radar transmits a short radio
pulse with very high pulse power.
This pulse is focused in one
direction only by the directivity of
the antenna, and propagates in this oscilloscope
given direction with the speed of
light.

If in this direction is an obstacle, for example an airplane,

then a part of the energy of the pulse is scattered in all
directions. A very small portion is also reflected back to the
radar. The radar antenna receives this energy and the radar
evaluates the contained information.
Radar principles –Distance determination
Since the propagation of radio waves happens at
constant speed ,this distance is determined from t
he runtime of the high-frequency transmitted sign
al. The actual range of a target from the radar is kn
own as slant range. Since the waves travel to a targ
et and back, the round trip time is dividing by two i
n order to obtain the time the wave took to reach t
he target. Therefore the following formula arises fo
r the slant range: R=c t/2 0
c0 = speed of light = 3·108 m/s
t = measured running time [s]
R = slant range antenna - aim [m]
Radar principles –Direction determination
 Determined by the directivity of the antenna.
 By measuring the direction in which the antenna is p

nting when the echo is received, both the azimuth an

d elevation angles from the radar to the object or tar
et can be determined.
Radar principles –Direction determination
 the echo signal strength varies in amplitude as t
he antenna beam moves across the target.

 In actual practice, search radar antennas move c

ontinuously;

 the point of maximum echo, determined by the de

tection circuitry or visually by the operator, is when
the beam points direct at the target.
 Radar principles –Frequency ranges
GHz

Airborne radar
(small size, shirt range,
high resolution)

Over the horizon

(high power, low
resolution)
Radar Configurations
 Radar Equations
Power density from
uniformly radiating
antenna
transmitting spherical
wave
 Radar Equations

Gain is the radiation

intensity of the antenna in a
given direction over that of
an isotropic (uniformly
radiating) source
 Radar Equations

Radar Cross Section (RCS or σ ) is a measure of the

energy that a radar target intercepts and scatters
back toward the radar

Power of reflected
signal at target

Power density of reflected

signal at the radar
 Radar Equations

The received power = the power density at the radar

times the area of the receiving antenna
Power of reflected signal from target and received by radar:
 Radar Equations

Minimum detectable signal energy = Smin

 Radar Equations---Noise
 In practice the received signal is "corrupted"
(distorted from the ideal shape and amplitud
e) by thermal noise, interference and clutter.
 Typical return trace appears as follows:
 Threshold detection is commonly used. If the retur
n is greater than the detection threshold a target is
declared.
 A is a false alarm: the noise is greater than the thre

shold level but there is no target.

 B is a miss: a target is present but the return is not

detected.
Radar Equations---Noise
Radar Equations
Radar Environment

 Atmospheric Losses
 RAIN LOSS
 TERRAIN MASKING
 CLUTTER
 Radar Environment
Atmospheric Losses
 Molecular absorption by oxygen and water vapor i
n the atmosphere.
 Increases gradually with frequency in the microwa
ve-frequency region, resonant peaks at 22.3 GHz
due to water vapor and at 60 GHz due to oxygen.
 Decreases with altitude, neglected above 10 km.

 Radar Environment
Atmospheric Losses
 Atmospheric loss increases exponentially with path lengt
h,L, and can be characterized by a two-way loss in dB p
er km, aA .
 For paths where aA remains constant, the total loss, LA, i
n dB is:
LA= aA L
 The loss power ratio is:
LA(power ratio) =

For surface radars, the attenuation decreases with increasing

elevation angle, and can usually be neglected at elevation
angles above 10 degrees.
 RADAR ENVIRONMENT
RAIN LOSS
Rain causes signal attenuation for signal paths that pass
through the rainfall.
 increases significantly with frequency,
 Usually be neglected at frequencies below 1 GHz

Rain loss increases exponentially with path length, l,, For

paths where aR remains constant, the total loss, LR, in dB is:

LR(in dB) = aR l
aR: two-way loss in dB /km

LR (power ratio) =
 RADAR ENVIRONMENT
RAIN LOSS
 The signal attenuation is found by integrating th
e attenuation along the signal path. Since rainfall
is not uniform over extended areas.

 High rainfall rates are usually confined to relative

ly small areas, typically 10 km or less.

 Thus the equation above must be used with care

 RADAR ENVIRONMENT
ATMOSPHERIC REFRACTION
 Refraction or bending of the radar-signal propa
gation path in the atmosphere , is caused by sm
all variations of the propagation velocity with alt
itude due to variations in pressure, temperature,
and water vapor content.

 It normally decreases with increasing altitude, ca

using a downward bending and lengthening of t
he propagation path.
 RADAR ENVIRONMENT
TERRAIN MASKING
 Radar horizon range
 Blocking of the radar line-of-sight (LOS), by terrai

n or the sea surface can limit the observation of l

ow-altitude targets by surface or low-altitude rad
ars
 The radar horizon range (the range from the radar

to the point where the LOS is tangent to the earth

or sea surface):

hR is the radar altitude above a smooth earth

rE is the 4/3 earth radius, 8,495 km
 RADAR ENVIRONMENT
RADAR CLUTTER

 Backscatter from unwanted objects

 Ground
 Sea
 Rain
 Birds and Insects
RADAR ENVIRONMENT
RADAR CLUTTER
RADAR ENVIRONMENT
RADAR CLUTTER

Geometry of Radar
Clutter
RADAR ENVIRONMENT
RADAR CLUTTER
 RADAR ENVIRONMENT
RADAR CLUTTER
 Major Clutter Variables in Data Collection
Terrain type:
 Forest
 Urban
 Farmland
 Mountains
 Farmland
 Desert, marsh, or grassland (few discrete scatterers)

Terrain slope:High (>2°)

 Low (<2°) Moderately low (1° to 2°)
 Very low (<1°)

Depression angle
 High 1° to 2°
 Intermediate 0.3° to 1°
 Low <0.3°
 Land Clutte
r Backscatt
er vs. Terra
in Type an
d Frequenc
y
RADAR ENVIRONMENT
RADAR CLUTTER
RADAR ENVIRONMENT
RADAR CLUTTER
 RADAR ENVIRONMENT
RADAR CLUTTER

Mean backscatter from sea is about 100 times less than that of gro

und
Amplitude of backscatter depends on Sea State and a number of other factors Rad

ar wavelength, grazing angle, polarization, etc.

The platform motion of ship based radars and the motion of the sea due to

wind give sea clutter a mean Doppler velocity

 Sea spikes can cause a false target problem

Occur at low grazing angles and moderate to high wind speeds
 RADAR ENVIRONMENT
RADAR CLUTTER
Attributes of Rain Clutter
RADAR ENVIRONMENT
RADAR CLUTTER
THANKS