RADAR

RAdio Detection And Ranging

Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine
the range, angle, or velocity of objects. It can be used to detect
aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles,
weather formations, and terrain.

Detection refers to whether the target is present or not. The target

can be stationary or movable, i.e., non-stationary. Ranging refers
to the distance between the Radar and the target.
Advantages of RADAR

1. The Radar system can be used in a stationary mode as well as

moving mode.

2. The accuracy of the Radar system is very high.

3. The Radar system can be used in a very large area for the
measurement and detection purpose.

4. Using the Radar system, distance, angular position, speed,

shape, etc can be measured together.

5. The Radar system can work through the insulating material. It

is a great advantage of Radar.

6. A Radar system can detect and measure more than one object
together and gives very accurate data.

7. The Radar system is very reliable.

Disadvantages Of RADAR

1. One of the important and noticeable disadvantages of RADAR is,

external interference reduces its efficiency, accuracy.

2. The Radar system is very slow, it takes more time to detect an

object.

3. The Radar system can identify the color of an object.

4. RADAR Technology cannot work underwater.

5. The Radar system is more complex and expensive.

6. The Radar system cannot work beyond the ionosphere.

Radar block diagram and operation
There are two sections of radar 1. Transmitter section 2. Receiver section
Transmitter section
• Transmitter : the transmitter may be a power amplifier such as klystron,
travelling wave tube or transistor amplifier. This will generates the Electrical
energy at R.F.(Radio Frequency).
• Pulse modulator : The power amplifier (Such as Klystron, TWT) produces a
high power signal, may be in terms of megawatts. Pulse modulator shown in the
block is used as a switch, which will turn on and off the power amplifier.
• Wave form generator: A low power signal is produced by the waveform
generator which is given as an input to the power amplifier.
• Duplexer: The duplexer allows a single antenna to be used on a time shared
basis for both transmitting and receiving. The duplexer is generally a gaseous
device that produces a short circuit at the input to the receiver when the
transmitter is operating, so that high power flows to the antenna and not to the
receiver. On the reception, the duplexer directs echo signal to the receiver and
not to the transmitter. Solid state ferrite circulators and receiver protector
devices can also be part of the duplexer
Receiver section:
• Low noise RF amplifier: The receiver is almost always a super
heterodyne. LNA is used immediately after the antenna. This reduces
the Noise Figures and produces the RF pulse proportional to the
transmitted signal.
• Mixer and local oscillator: It converts the RF signal to an intermediated
frequency where it is amplified by the IF amplifier.The IF frequency
might be 30 or 60 MHz.
• IFamplifier:
i) It amplifies the IF pulse.
ii) IF amplifier is designed as a matched filter which maximizes the
output peak signal to mean noise ratio.
iii)The matched filter maximizes the detectability of weak echo signals
and attenuates unwanted signals.
iv) The signal bandwidth of super heterodyne receiver is determined by
the bandwidth of its IF stage.
v) For example when pulse width is of the order of 1µs the IF bandwidth
would be about 1MHz.
• Second Detector: the IF amplifier followed by a crystal diode which is called
the second detector or demodulator. Its purpose is to assist in extracting the
echo signal modulation from the carrier. It is called as 2ndDetector since it is
the second diode used in the chain. The first diode is used in the mixer.
Output of the 2ndDetector is the Video Pulse.
• Video amplifier: It is designed to provide the sufficient amplification to rise
the level of the input signal to a magnitude where it can be diplay (CRT or
Digital computer).
• Threshold decision: The output of video amplifier is given to the threshold
detector where it is decided whether the received signal is from a target or
just because of the presence of noise.
• Display: The Display is generally a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube)
(a) ‘A’ scope
(b) PPI i) ’A’ scope provided Range and Echo power.
ii) PPI measures Range and bearing (azimuth angles)
iii) In addition there are other displays like ‘B’ scope, ‘ D ‘ scope etc.
Applications of Radar:
MILITARY:
• Important part of air defence system, operation of offensive missiles & other
weapons.
• Target detection, target tracking & weapon control .
• Also used in area, ground & air surveillance.
• Navigation of ships, aircraft, helicopter etc.
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL
•Used to safely control air traffic in the vicinity of the airports and enroute.
• Ground vehicular traffic & aircraft taxing.
• Mapping of regions of rain in the vicinity of airports & weather.
LAW ENFORCEMENT& HIGHWAY SAFETY:
• Radar speed meters are used by police for enforcing speed limits.
• It i s used for warning of pending collision, actuating air bag or warning of
obstruction or people behind a vehicle or in the side blind zone
AIRCRAFT SAFETY & NAVIGATION
• Low flying military aircrafts rely on terrain avoidance & terrain following radars
to avoid collision with high terrain & obstrucions
REMOTE SENSING
• Weather observation-t.V.Reporting
• Planetary observation
• Below ground probing
• Mapping of sea ice
SHIP SAFETY
• Radar is found on ships & boats for collision avoidance & to observe
navigation buoys, when the visibility is poor.
• Shore based radars are used for surveillance of harbours & river traffic.
SPACE
• Space vehicles have used radar for clocking & for landing on the moon.
• Used for planetary exploration.
• Ground based radars are used for detection & tracking of satellites & other
space objects.
• Used for radio astronomy.
OTHER APPLICATIONS
• It is used for in industry for the non contact measurement of speed &
distance.
• Used for oil & gas exploration.
• Used to study movements of insects & birds.
Derivation of Radar Range Equation
We know that power density is nothing but the ratio of power and area.
Pt is the amount of power transmitted by the Radar transmitter

In general, Radars use directional Antennas. Therefore, the power density, Pdd due
to directional Antenna will be −

Target radiates the power in different directions from the received input power. The
amount of power, which is reflected back towards the Radar depends on its cross
section. So, the power density Pde of echo signal at Radar can be mathematically
represented as −
Substitute, Equation 2 in Equation 3.

The amount of power, Pr received by the Radar depends on the effective

aperture, Ae of the receiving Antenna.

Substitute, Equation 4 in Equation 5.

Standard Form of Radar Range Equation
prediction of range performance
The simple form of the radar equation expressed the maximum radar range Rmax, in
terms of radar and target parameters:

All the parameters are to some extent under the control of the radar designer, except
for the target cross section σ
The radar equation states that if long ranges are desired,
1. The transmitted power must be large,
2. The radiated energy must be concentrated into a narrow beam (high transmitting
antenna gain),
3. The received echo energy must be collected with a large antenna aperture (also
synonymous with high gain) and
4. The receiver must be sensitive to weak signals
In practice, however, the simple radar equation does not predict the range performance of
actual radars. The predicted values of radar range are usually optimistic. In some cases the
actual range might be only half of that is predicted. The failure of the simple form of radar
equation is due to
1. The statistical nature of the minimum detectable signal determined by receiver noise.
2. Fluctuations and uncertainty in radar cross-section.
3. The losses throughout the radar system.
4. Propagation effects caused by the earth’s surface and atmosphere. Because of
statistical nature of receiver noise and target cross section, the maximum radar range
is described probabilistically rather than single number
Therefore the radar range equation includes
1. Probability that radar will detect a target at a particular range(pd).
2. Probability of making a false detection when no target is present(pfa)
From the above facts it can be concluded that the range of radar is a function of
probability of detection(pd) and probability of false alarm(pfa). The prediction of radar
range is not accurate as there is uncertainty in various parameters. Still radar range
equation is an important tool for
i) Assessing the performance of radar
ii) Generating technical requirements and Determining system tradeoffs for designing new
radar systems.
MINIMUM DETECTABLE SIGNAL
•The ability of a radar receiver to detect a weak echo signal is limited by the noise
present in the frequency spectrum.
• The weakest signal that the receiver can detect is called the minimum detectable
signal. It is difficult t o define what is minimum detectable signal (MDS) because of its
statistical nature and the criterion for deciding whether a target is present or not may
not be too well defined.
• Detection is normally based on establishing a threshold level at the output of the
receiver (as shown by the dotted line ). Whenever Rx output signal which is a mixture
of echo and noise crosses this threshold then it is detected as a target. This is called
threshold detection.
• Consider the output of a typical radar receiver as a function of time as shown in the
figure below which typically represents one sweep of the video output displayed on
an A-scope.
1.If the threshold level were set properly, the signal would not generally exceed the
threshold if noise alone were present, but would exceed it if a strong signal were present
along with the noise.
2. If the threshold level is set too low, noise might exceed it and be mistaken for a target.
This is called a false alarm.
If the threshold level were set too high, noise might not be large enough to cause false
alarms, but weak target echoes might not exceed the threshold and would not be
detected. This is called missed detection.
4. Here points A,B and C represents signal plus noise.
5. The signal at A is large which has a much larger amplitude than the noise. Hence target
detection is possible without any difficulty and ambiguity.
6. Next consider the two signals at B and C, representing target echoes of equal
amplitude. The noise voltage accompanying the signal at B is large enough so that the
combination of signal plus noise exceeds the threshold and target detection is still
possible. Thus the presence of noise will sometimes enhance the detection of weak
signals.
7. But ,for the target C , the noise is not as large and the resultant signal plus noise.
Threshold Level setting: Weak signals such as C would not be lost if the
threshold level were lower. But too low threshold causes false alarms. If the
threshold is set too low, false target indications are obtained, but if it is set
too high, targets might be missed. The selection of the proper threshold level
is necessary to avoid the mistakes of
1.Failing to recognize a signal that is present (missed detection) or
2.Falsely indicating the presence of a signal when it does not exist (false
alarm) The signal-to-noise ratio is a better measure of a radar’s detection
performance that the minimum detectable signal
RECEIVER NOISE
Noise is an unwanted EM energy which interferes with the ability of the
receiver to detect the wanted signal thus limiting the receiver sensitivity.
• 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
n o external noise accompany the target signal.
• If the receiver itself were so perfect that it didn’t generate any excess
noise, there would be still be noise generated by the thermal motion of
the conduction electrons in the ohmic portion of the receiver i/p stages.
This is called Thermal noise or jhonson noise
𝑵𝒊 produced at receiver as: 𝑁𝑖 = 𝐾𝑇𝑜𝐵n
Where, 𝐾 is the Boltzmann’s constant and it is equal to 1.38 × 10−23𝐽/𝑑𝑒𝑔
𝑇𝑜 is the absolute temperature and it is equal to 2900𝐾
𝐵𝑛 is the receiver band width
Figure of Merit
The Figure of Merit, F is nothing but the ratio of input SNR, (𝑆𝑁𝑅)𝑖 and output SNR,
(𝑆𝑁𝑅)𝑜. Mathematically, it can be represented as:
From the above equation, we can conclude that the following conditions
should be considered in order to get the range of the Radar as maximum.
• Peak power transmitted by the Radar, 𝑃𝑡 should be high.
• Gain of the transmitting Antenna 𝐺 should be high
•Radar cross section of the target 𝜎 should be high.
• Effective aperture of the receiving Antenna 𝐴𝑒 should be high.
•Figure of Merit F should be low.
•Receiver bandwidth 𝐵𝑛 should be low.
SNR
Signal to noise ratio is very important as far as radar is concerned. Because
presence of target or not have small difference.
• Statistical noise theory will be applied to obtain S/N at the o/p of the IF
amplifier necessary to achieve a specified prob of detection and prob of false
alarm.
• Envelope Detector:

• Consider an IF amplifier with bandwidth BIF followed by a second detector and

a video amplifier with bandwidth BV
The second detector and video amplifier are assumed to form an envelope
detector, that is one which rejects the carrier freq but passes the modulation
envelop
To extract the modulation envelope, the video bandwidth must be wide enough
to pass the low freq components generated by the second detector but no so
wide as to pass the high frequency components at or near the IF
The video bandwidth BV must be greater than BIF/2 in order to pass all video
modulation.
Probability Density Function
 Integration of Radar Pulses
RADAR Pulses Integration: Many pulses are usually returned from any particular
target on each radar scan and can be used to improve detection. The number of
pulses nB returned from a point target as the radar antenna scans through its beam
width is:

Typical parameters for a ground-based search radar might

be pulse repetition frequency 300Hz, 1.5˚ beam
width, and antenna scan rate 5 rpm (30˚/s). These parameters result in 15 hits from
a point target on each scan.
The process of summing all the radar echo pulses for the purpose of improving detection
is called integration.
Many techniques might be employed for accomplishing integration. All practical
integration techniques employ some sort of storage device.
Perhaps the most common radar integration method is the cathode-ray-tube display
combined with the integrating properties of the eye and brain of the radar operator.
Integration may be accomplished in the radar receiver either before the second
detector (in the IF) or after the second detector (in the video).
A definite distinction must be made between these two cases. Integration before the
detector is called pedetection, or coherent, integration, while integration after the
detector is called post detection, or no coherent, integration.

Predetection integration requires that the phase of the echo signal

be preserved if full benefit is to be obtained from the summing process.

On the other hand, phase information is

destroyed by the second detector; hence post
detection integration is not concerned with preserving RF phase. For this
convenience, post detection integration is not as efficient as predetection integration.

If n pulses, all of the same signal-to-noise ratio, were integrated by an ideal predetection
integrator, the resultant, or integrated, signal-to-noise (power) ratio would be exactly n
times that of a single pulse.
If the same n pulses were integrated by an ideal post detection device, the resultant
signal-to-noise ratio would be less than n times that of a single pulse. This loss in
integration efficiency is caused by the nonlinear action of the second detector, which
converts some of the signal energy to noise energy in the rectification process.
The comparison of predetection and post detection integration may be briefly
summarized by stating that although post detection integration is not as
efficient as predetection integration, it is easier to implement in most applica
tions.
Post detection integration is therefore preferred, even though the integrated
signal-to-noise ratio may not be as great. An alert, trained operator viewing a
properly designed cathode-ray tube display is a close approximation to the
theoretical post detection integrator.

The efficiency of post detection integration relative to ideal predetection

integration has been computed by Marcum when all pulses are of equal amplitude.
The integration efficiency may be defined as follows:
RADAR CROSS SECTION OF TARGET
Introduction:
Radar cross section provides an indication of how well a given target reflects
radar energy. With these ideas in mind, it is not surprising that the physical
area of a target is normally greater than the radar cross section because some
the incident energy is scattered and absorbed by the target. Use of radar
absorbent material (RAM) and specific shapes and angles helps to minimize
the radar cross section.
Radar Cross Section of Targets:
The radar cross section of a target is the (fictional)
area intercepting that amount of power which
when scattered equally in all directions, produces an echo at the radar
equal to that from the target; or in other terms,
This equation is equivalent to the radar range equation.
Scattering and diffraction are variations of the same physical process.
When an object scatters an electromagnetic wave, the
scattered field is defined as the difference between the
total field in the presence of the object and the field that would
exist if the object were absent (but with the sources unchanged).
On the other hand, the diffracted field is the total field in the presence
of the object. With radar backscatter, the two fields are the same, and
one may talk about scattering and diffraction interchangeably.
In theory, the scattered field, and hence the radar cross section,
can be determined by solving Maxwell's equations with the
proper boundary conditions applied.
The radar cross section of a simple sphere is shown in Fig. as a
function of its circumference measured in wavelengths (2a /λ,
where a is the radius of the sphere and λ is the wavelength).
The region where the size of the sphere is small compared
with the wavelength (2a/λ << 1) is called the Rayleigh region.
At the other extreme from the Rayleigh region is the optical
region, where the dimensions of the sphere are large compared
with the wavelength (2a/λ >> 1).
For large 2a/λ, the radar cross section approaches the optical cross
section a2. In between the optical and the Rayleigh region is the
Mie, or resonance, region. The cross section is oscillatory with
frequency within this region.
The maximum value is 5.6 dB greater than the optical value, while
the value of the first null is 5.5 dB below the optical value. (The
theoretical values of the maxima and minima may vary according
to the method of calculation employed.)
The behavior of the radar cross sections of other simple reflecting
objects as a function of frequency is similar to that of the sphere.
PRF and Range Ambiguities
The pulse repetition frequency (prf) i s determined primarily by
the maximum range at which targets are expected.

• Echo signals that arrive at a time later than the pulse repetition
period are known a s second time around echoes or multiple time
around echoes. These echoes may cause error and confusion. Also
it can mask unambiguous target echoes at shorter ranges.
• Pulse Doppler radars have usually problem of range ambiguities
because of prf.
• Consider the three targets located at three different positions
A,B and C
• Target A is located within the maximum unambiguous range
Runamb [= C.TP /2] of the radar, target B is at a distance greater
than Runamb but less than 2Runamb and the target C is greater
than 2Runamb but less than 3Runamb
The appearance of the three targets on an A-scope is shown
below.

The ambiguous echoes B and C looks very similar to

unambiguous range echo A. Out of these three echoes only
the range of A is correct ,for B and C are not correct.
• The ambiguous range echoes are recognized by changing
the prf of the radar. When the prf is changed the
unambiguous echo remains at its true range. Ambiguous
range echoes appear at different apparent ranges for each
prf shown in below fig
• Let if prf fr1 has unambiguous range and the range
corresponds to it is then the true range is given by

• Let if prf fr2 has unambiguous range and the range corresponds
to it is then the true range is given by

The correct range is same for two prfs. Thus two or more prfs can
be used to correct range ambiguity with increased accuracy and
avoiding false values.
System Losses
The losses within the radar system is called system losses. The
losses in a radarsystem reduce the signal-to-noise ratio at the
receiver output.
1. Microwave plumbing losses : There is always loss in the
transmission line that connects the antenna to the transmitter and
receiver. In addition there can be loss in the various microwave
components, such as duplexer, receiver protector, rotary joints,
directional couplers, transmission line connectors, bends in the
transmission lines and the mismatch at the antenna.
a) Transmission line losses: Generally same transmission line used
for both transmission and reception , the loss to be inserted in
the radar eq is twice the one way loss. At lower radar
frequencies, the transmission line introduces little loss. At
higher radar frequencies attenuation may not be small and may
have to be taken in account. In practical the transmitter and
receiver should be placed close to the antenna to keep the
transmission line loss small.
b) Duplexer loss: the loss due to a gas duplexer that protects the receiver from the
high power of the transmitter is generally different on transmission and
reception. It also depends on the type of duplexer used.
In an S-band (3000 MHz) radar, for example, the plumbing losses might be as follows:
100 ft of RG-113/U A1 waveguide transmission line (two-way) : 1.0 dB
Duplexer loss : 2.0 dB
Loss due to poor connections (estimate) : 0.3 dB
Rotary-joint loss : 0.8 dB
Other RF devices : 0.4dB
Total plumbing loss : 4.5 dB
2. Antenna losses:
a) Beam shape loss: In radar equation antenna gain is assumed
as constant at its maximum value but in practice as a search
antenna scans across a target, it does not offer its peak gain
to all echo pulses. When the system integrates several echo
pulses maximum antenna gain occurs when the peak of
antenna beam is in direction of target.
b) Scanning loss: When a radar antenna scans rapidly compared to
round trip time of the echo signal, the antenna gain may not be
same for transmission and while receiving of echoes. This results
in the direction of additional loss called the Scanning loss. The
scanning loss is most significant in long range scanning radars, such
as space surveillance and ballistic missile defense radars.
c) Radome: The loss introduced by radome is decided by its type
and operating frequency. A commonly used ground based metal
space frame radome offers a loss of 1.2dB for two way
transmission.
d) Phased array losses: Some phased array radars have
additional transmission line losses due to the distribution
network that connects the receiver and transmitter to multiple
elements of array. These losses reduces antenna power gain.
3. Signal Processing Losses: For detecting targets in clutters and
in extraction information from the radar echo signals is very
important and lossless signal processing is necessary. Various
losses accounted during signal processing are