RADAR

AND NAVIGATION AIDS

Content
Principle of radar

Radar equation

CW and FM Radar

MTI and pulse Doppler radar

Navigation Aids
Principle of radar
Radar is an object detection system that uses radio waves to determine the range, angle, or
velocity of objects.

Radar is an acronym for Radio Detection and Ranging

It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather
formations and terrain

A radar transmits radio waves or microwaves that reflect from any object in their path

Strong radio waves are transmitted, and receiver listen for reflected echoes.
It can operate in darkness, haze, fog, rain and show, it has the ability to measure distance with
high accuracy in all-weather conditions.
The electronics principle on which radar operates is very similar to the principle of sound waves
reflection.
If you shout in the direction of sound – reflection object(like a rocky canon or cave), you will hear
an echo.
If you know the speed of sound in air, you can estimate the distance and general direction of the
object
The time required for a return echo can roughly converted in to distance if the speed of sound is
known.
Radar uses electromagnetic energy pulses in the same way as shown in figure below
The radio frequency energy is transmitted to and reflected from the reflecting object.

A small portion of the energy is reflected and return to the radar set. This returned energy is
called ECHO
Range to a target
The most common radar waveform is a train of narrow, rectangular-shape pulses modulating a
sine wave carrier. The distance, or range, to the target is determined by measuring the time Tr
taken by the pulse to travel to the target and return. Since electromagnetic energy propagates at
the speed of light c = 3x10^(8) m/s,

The range R is ; R = cTR / 2

The factor “2” appears in the direction denominator because of the two-ways propagation of radar
with the range in kilometers or nautical miles, and TR in microseconds,

Eq above become: R (Km) = 0.15 TR (us) or R (nmi) = 0.081 TR (us)

Radar frequency band designations
Different types of radar
Radar systems may be divided into types based on the designed use.

Some commonly used radar systems are;

 Air defense radars
 Air traffic control radar
 Fire control radar
 Speed gauges
 Mortar locating radar
 Radar satellites
 Weather radar
 Ground penetrating radar etc
Radar are classified as below
Primary Radar
◦ A primary radar transmits high-frequency signal which are reflected at targets.
◦ The echoes are received and evaluated. This means, unlike secondary radar units a primary radar unit
receive its own emitted signal as an echoes again.

Secondary Radar
◦ At these radar units the airplane must have a transponder on board and receives an encoded signal of the
secondary radar unit.
◦ An active also encoded response signal, which is returned to the radar unit then is generated in the
transponder e.g. IFF(Identification of Friend and Foe)
Pulse radar
 Pulse radar units transmit a high-frequency impulsive signal for high power.
 After this a longer break in which the echoes can be received follows before a new transmitted signal s
sent out.
 Direction, distance and sometimes altitude also can be determined.

Continuous Wave Radar

 Continuous wave radar is a type of radar system where a known stable frequency continuous- wave radio
energy is transmitted and then received from any reflecting objects . Continuous-wave (CW) radar uses
Doppler, which renders the radar immune to interference from large stationary objects and slow moving
clutter. CW radar systems are used as a speed gauge of the police
Unmodulated CW Radar
 The transmitted signal of these equipment is constant in amplitude and frequency.
 These equipment's are specialized in speed measuring. Distance cannot be measured e.g. It is used as a
speed gauge of the police.

Modulated Radar
 Frequency-modulated continuous –wave radar (FM-CW) – also called continuous-wave frequency-
modulated (CWFM) radar – is a short – range measuring radar set capable of determining distance. This
increase reliability by providing distance measurement along with speed measurement, which is essential
when there is more than one source of the reflecting arriving at the radar antenna. This kind of radar is
often used as “radar altimeter” to measure the exact height during the landing procedure of aircraft. It is
also used as early- warming radar, wave radar, and proximity sensor.
Types of radar systems
Bistatic radar
◦ Bistatic radar is a radar system that compromises of a transmitter and a receiver that are separated by
a distance that is equal to the distance of the expected target.
◦ A radar in which the transmitter and the receiver are located at the same places is known as a monastic
radar
◦ Most long range surface to air and air to air missiles employ the use of bistatic radar
Continuous – wave radar
◦ A continuous-wave radar is a type of radar where a known stable frequency continuous wave radio
energy is transmitted and then received from any of the objects that reflect the waves.
◦ A continuous-wave radar uses Doppler technology which means the radar will be immune to any
interference by large objects that are stationary or slow-moving
Doppler radar
◦ A Doppler radar is a special form of the radar that employs the use of the
Doppler effect to produce velocity data about an object at a given distance.
◦ This is achieved by sending electromagnetic signals towards target and then
analyzing how the objects motion has affected the frequency of the returned
signal.
◦ This variation has the capacity to give extremely accurate measurements of
the radial component of a target’s velocity in relation to the radar
◦ Doppler radars have applications in different industries including aviation,
meteorology, healthcare, and many others.
Monopulse radar
◦ A monopulse radar is a radar system that compares the receiverd signal from a single radar pulse against
itself with an aim of comparing the signal as seen in multiple polarizations or directions.
◦ The most common form of monopulse radar is the adaptation of conical scanning radar which compares
the return from two directions to directly measure the location of the target. It is important to note that
most of the radar that were designed since the 1960s are monopulse radars
Passive radar
o A passive radar system is a type of radar that is designed to detect and track objects by processing
reflections from non-cooperative sources of the illumination in the environment.
o These sources include such things as communications signals and commercial broadcasts
o Passive radar can be categorized in the same class of radar as a bistatic radar
Instrumentation radar
◦ Instrumentation radars are radars that are designed to test rockets, missiles, aircraft, and ammunitions
on the government and private test ranges.
◦ They provide a variety of information including space, position, and time both in real time and in the post-
processing analysis.
Weather radars
◦ Weather radars are radar systems that are used for weather sensing and detection .
◦ This radar uses radio waves along with horizontal or circular polarization
◦ The frequency selection of weather radar depends on a performance compromise between precipitation
refection and attenuation as a result of atmospheric water vapor
◦ Some weather radars are designed to use Doppler shifts to measure the speed of wind and dual
polarization to identify precipitation types.
Mapping radar
o Mapping radars are used to scan a large geographical region
for geography and remote sensing applications
o Because of their use of synthetic aperture radar, they are
limited to relatively static objects.
o Used on aircraft as an aid to navigation, which displays on a
cathode-ray tube imagery of the ground in the vicinity of the
aircraft
Navigational radars
◦ Navigation radars are generally the same as search radars.
◦ However, they come with much shorter wavelengths that are
capable of reflecting from the earth and from stones.
◦ They are most common on commercial ships and other long
distance commercial aircraft.
◦ There are various navigational radar that include marine radars
commonly mounted on ships for collision avoidance and
navigational purposes
 Application of radar
• Navigational aid on ground and sea

• Radar altimeters (height measurement)

• Radar blind lander(aircraft landing during poor visibility)

• Airborne radar for satellite surveillance

• Space applications like planetary observations

• Police radars (Law enforcement and Highway safety)

• Radars for determining speed of moving targets

• Remote sensing (weather monitoring)

• Air traffic control (ATC) and Aircraft safety

• Ship safety

• Non-contact method of speed and distance in industry

Radar Block Diagram

Block diagram of simple pulse radar

Transmitter
 The transmitter may be an oscillator, such as a magnetron, that is “pulsed” (turned on and off) by the
modulator to generate a respective train of pulses.
 The magnetron has probably been the most widely used of the various microwave generators for radar.
 A typical radar for the detection of aircraft at ranges of 100 or 200 nmi might employ a peak power of the
order of a megawatt, an average power of several kilowatts, a pulse width of several microseconds, and a
pulse repetition frequency of several hundred pulses per second
Pulse Modulator
◦ The radar modulator is a device, which provides the high power to the transmitter tube to transmit during
transmission period. It makes the transmitting tube ON and OFF to generate the desired waveform.
◦ Modulation allows the storing the energy in a capacitor bank during rest time.
◦ The stored energy then can be put into the pulse when transmitted.
◦ It provides rectangular voltage pulses which act as the supply voltage to the output tube such as
magnetron, thus switch it ON and OFF as required.
Duplexer
 The receiver must be protected from damage caused by the high power of the transmitter.
 This is the functioning of the duplexer, the duplexer might consist of two gas-discharge devices one known
as a TR (transmit-receive) and the other an ATR (anti-transmit-receiver). The TR protects the receiver
during transmission and the ATR directs the echo signal to the receiver during reception.
 Solid – state ferrite circulators and receiver protectors with gas-plasma TR devices and/or diode limiters
are also employed as duplexers.
Antenna
◦ The antenna takes the radar pulse from the transmitter and puts it into the air.
◦ Furthermore, the antenna must focus the energy into a well defined beam which increase the power and
permits a determination of the direction of the target

Receiver
The receiver is usually of the super-heterodyne type whose function is to detect the desired signal in the
presence of noise, interference and clutter. The receiver in pulsed radar consist of low noise RF amplifier,
mixer, local oscillator, IF amplifier, detector, video amplifier and radar display.
Low Noise RF Amplifier

Low noise amplifier is the first stage of the receiver.

It is low noise transistor amplifier or a parametric amplifier or a TWT amplifier.

Radar Range Equation
The radar equation relates the range of radar to the characteristics of the transmitter, receiver,
antenna, target and environment.
It is useful not just as a means for determining the maximum distance from the radar to the
target, but it can serve both as a tool for understanding radar operation and as a basic for radar
design
If the power of the radar transmitter is denoted by Pt, and if an isotropic antenna is used (one
which radiates uniformly in all directions), the power density(watts per unit area)at a distance R
from the radar is equal to the transmitter power divided by the surface area 4𝜋𝑅 2 of an imaginary
sphere of radius R, or
Power density at range R from an isotropic antenna = P t / 4𝝅𝑹𝟐
Radars employ directive antennas to channel, or direct, the radiated power Pt into some
particular direction. The gain G of an antenna is a measure of the increased power radiated
in the direction of the target as compared with the power that would have been radiated from
an isotropic antenna
It may be define as the ratio of maximum radiation intensity from the subject antenna to the
radiation intensity from a lossless, isotropic antenna with the same power input(The radiation
intensity is the power radiated per unit solid angle in a given direction.) The power density at
the target from an antenna with a transmitting gain G is
Power density at range R from a directive antenna = PtG / 4𝝅𝑹𝟐
The target intercepts a portion of the incident power and reradiates it in various direction
The measure if the amount of incident power intercepted by the target and reradiated back in the
direction of the radar is denoted as the radar cross section σ,and is defined by the relation

Reradiated power density back at the radar = ( PtG / 4𝝅𝑹𝟐 ) ( σ / 4𝝅𝑹𝟐 )

The radar cross section σ has units of area. It is a characteristic of the particular target and is a
measure of its size as seen by the radar. The radar antenna capture a portion of the echo power. If
the effective area of the receiving antenna is denoted Ae , the power Pr, received by the radar is
The maximum radar range Rmax is the distance beyond which the target cannot be detected.

It occurs when the receiver echo signal power P, just equals the minimum detectable signal Smin

Therefore:

This is the fundamental form of the radar equation. Note that the important antenna parameters
are the transmitting gain and the receiving effective area.

Antenna theory gives the relationship between the transmitting gain and the receiving effective
area of an antenna as;
Since radars generally use the same antenna for both transmission and reception, Eq can be
substituted into Eq. above , first for Ae, then for G , to give two other forms of the radar equation;

Where, 𝑃𝑡 = Transmitted Power

G = Antenna Gain
𝐴𝑒= Antenna effective aperture
𝜎 = RADAR cross section
𝑆𝑚𝑖𝑛 = Minimum Detectable Signal
All the parameters are to some extent under the control of radar designer, except for the target
cross section 𝜎

The radar equation states that if long range are desired, the transmitted power must be large, the
radiated energy must be concentrated into a narrow beam (high transmitting antenna gain), the
receiver echo energy must be collected with a large antenna aperture(also synonymous with high
gain), and the receiver must be sensitive to weak signals.

In practice, however the simple radar equation does not predict the range performance actual
radar equipment's to a satisfactory degree of accuracy.
Factors affecting range of radar:
 Transmitter power
 Frequency
 Radar cross section of the target
 Minimum received signal power Pr (min)
Minimum detectable Signal
 The ability of a radar receiver to detect a weak echo signal is limited by the noise energy that occupies the
same portion of the frequency spectrum as does the signal energy.
 The weakest signal the receiver can detect is called the minimum detectable signal.
 The specification of the minimum detectable signal is sometimes difficult because of its statistical nature
and because the criterion for deciding whether a target is present or not may not be too well defined.

Figure 1
Detection is based on establishing a threshold level at the output of the receiver. If the receiver
output exceeds the threshold, a signal is assumed to be present. This is called Threshold
detection.
Consider the output of a typical radar receiver as a function of time. This might represent one
sweep of the video output displayed on an A-scope.
The envelope has a fluctuating appearance caused by the random nature of noise. If a large
signal is present such as at A in figure 1, it is greater than the surrounding noise peaks and can
be recognized on the basis of its amplitude.
Thus, if the threshold level were set sufficiently high, the envelope would not generally exceed the
threshold if noise alone were present , but would exceed it if a strong signal were present.
Receiver Noise:
◦ Since noise is the chief factor limiting receiver sensitivity, it is necessary to obtain some means of
describing it quantitatively.
◦ Noise is unwanted electromagnetic energy which interferes with the ability of the receiver to detect the
wanted signal. It may originate within the receiver itself, or it may enter via the receiving antenna along
with the desired signal.
◦ If the radar were to operate in a perfectly noise – free environment so that no external sources of noise
accompanied the desired signal, and if the receiver itself were so perfect that it did not generate any
excess noise, there would still exist an unavoidable component of noise generated by the thermal motion
of the conduction electrons in the ohmic portions of the receiver input stages.
◦ This is called thermal noise, or Johnson noise, and is directly proportional to the temperature of the ohmic
portions of the circuit and the receiver bandwidth
The available thermal noise power generated by a receiver of bandwidth Bn, (in hertz) at a
temperature T (degrees Kelvin) is equal to,
𝑨𝒗𝒂𝒊𝒍𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒍 𝑵𝒐𝒊𝒔𝒆 𝑷𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓=𝒌𝑻𝑩

Where k = Boltzmann's constant = 1.38 x 10-23 J/deg. If the temperature T is taken to be

290 K, which corresponds approximately to room temperature (62°F), the factor kT is 4 x 10-
21W/Hz of bandwidth. If the receiver circuitry were at some other temperature, the thermal-
noise power would be correspondingly different.
The noise power in practical receivers is often greater than can be accounted for by thermal noise
alone.

The additional noise components are due to mechanisms other than the thermal agitation of the
conduction electrons

The exact origin of the extra noise components is not important except to know that it exists. No
matter whether the noise is generated by a thermal mechanism or by some other mechanism, the
total noise at the output of the receiver may be considered to equal to the thermal-noise power
obtained from an “ideal” receiver multiplied by a factor called the noise figure
The noise figure Fn of a receiver is defined by the equation:

Where No = noise output from receiver, and Ga = available gain. The standard temperature T is
taken to be 290 k

The noise No is measured over the linear portion of the receiver input-output characteristics,
usually at the output of the IF amplifier before the nonlinear second detector.
The receiver bandwidth Bn is that of the IF amplifier in most receivers. The available gain Ga is
the ratio of the signal out so to the signal in Si, and kToBn is the input noise Ni in an ideal receiver.
Equation above may be rewritten as;
Rearranging noise figure Eq. the input signal may be expressed as;

If the minimum detectable signal Smin, is that value of Si corresponding to the minimum ratio of
output (IF) signal-to-noise ratio (So /No)min necessary for detection. then,
Substituting Smin Eq. discussed into maximum range Eq. earlier results in the following form of
the radar equation: