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III
Fundamentals
of Radar
7. Choice of Radio Frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97
8. Directivity and the Antenna Beam . . . . . . . . 107
9. Electronically Scanned Array Antennas . . . .125
10. Electronically Scanned Array Design . . . . . . 135
11. Pulsed Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
12. Detection Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .159
13. The Range Equation: What It Does
and Doesnt Tell Us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
14. Radar Receivers and Digitization . . . . . . . . . . 195
15. Measuring Range and Resolving in Range . . 215
16. Pulse Compression and HighResolution Radar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .229
17.
Frequency-Modulated Continuous
Wave Ranging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .245
Choice of Radio
Frequency
100,000,000
Laser Radars
100,000
Satellite
Communications
40,000
Most Airborne
Radars
10,000
Frequency
(MHz)
1,000
Cellphones
400
At the high end are laser radars, which operate in the visible
and infrared region of the spectrum. Such radars are used to
provide the angular resolution needed for such tasks as measuring the ranges of individual targets on the battlefield.
100
TV
10
97
98
3 GHz
(10 cm)
10 GHz
(3 cm)
37.5 GHz
(0.8 cm)
94 GHz
(0.28 cm)
100
Millimeter
Wave
Frequency
(GHz)
30
Microwave
0
0.1
UHF
VHF
HF
100
If you havent already done so, memorize the center frequencies and wavelengths of these five radar bands:
Band
GHz
cm
Ka (above)
38
0.8
Ku (under)
15
10
10
40
26.5
18.0
Frequency
(GHz)
12.0
10
8
6
4
3
Millimeter
Radar
Ka
K
M
L
0.8
K
J
I
H
G
Countermeasures
Ku
99
F
E
UHF
Wavelength
(cm)
5
10
15
30
Physical Size. The dimensions of the hardware used to generate and transmit radio frequency power are in general proportional to wavelength. At the lower frequencies (longer
wavelengths), the hardware is usually large and heavy. At the
higher frequencies (shorter wavelengths), radars can be put into
smaller packages and thus operate in more compact spaces at a
lighter weight (Fig. 7-5). The limited space requires more tightly
packed electronics, which can present design challenges.
Transmitted Power. Because of its impact on hardware size,
the choice of wavelength indirectly influences the ability of
radar to transmit large amounts of power. The levels of power
that can be handled by a radar transmitter are largely limited
by voltage gradients (volts per unit of length) and heat dissipation requirements. It is not surprising, therefore, that the larger,
heavier radars operating at wavelengths of the order of meters
can transmit megawatts of average power, whereas millimeterwave radars may be limited to only a few hundred Watts of
average power.
Wavelength
6 cm
Wavelength
3 cm
Figure 7-6. For the same size antenna, the angular width of its
beam is proportional to wavelength.
100
Atmospheric Attenuation. In passing through the atmosphere, radio waves are attenuated by two basic mechanisms:
absorption and scattering (see blue panel). The absorption is
mainly due to oxygen (60 GHz) and water vapor (21 GHz).
The scattering is due almost entirely to condensed water
vapor (e.g., raindrops). Both absorption and scattering
increase with frequency. Below about 0.1 GHz, atmospheric
attenuation is negligible; above about 10 GHz it becomes
increasingly significant.
Moreover, above about 10 GHz the radars performance is
increasingly degraded by weather clutter competing with
desired targets. Even when the attenuation is reasonably low,
if enough transmitted energy is scattered back in the direction of the radar, it will be detected. In simple radars that do
not employ moving target indication (MTI), this returncalled
weather cluttermay obscure targets.
While usually not a concern for airborne radars, the effects
of the ionosphere on radar signals at UHF and below passing through the ionosphere (attenuation, refraction, dispersion,
and Faraday rotation) may also be significant.
Foliage Penetration. In some specialized applications an airborne radar may be required to detect targets hidden under
trees. The ability to do this depends on the attenuation properties of the foliage canopy, which are found to increase with
frequency. In practice, frequencies of L-band or below are necessary for foliage penetration radars.
Fractional Bandwidth. The fractional bandwidth of a radar is
defined as the bandwidth of its signal divided by the center
frequency. Well see later that the bandwidth of a radar signal
defines its range resolution, so the greater the bandwidth, the
finer the range resolution. However, for a given radar bandwidth, the lower the center frequency, the greater the fractional bandwidth. High fractional bandwidths (greater than
about 15%) pose problems for the radar hardware, especially
the antenna.
Coexistence with Other Users. The electromagnetic spectrum is used for many other purposesparticularly communications, broadcast, and radionavigationbesides radar.
By international agreement the spectrum is allocated among
the different users, so some frequency bands are allocated to
a particular application on an exclusive basis, while others
are shared. All users of the spectrum have requirements for
greater and greater bandwidth, yet the electromagnetic spectrum is a strictly finite resource. So even with this regulatory framework, mutual interference can become a problem.
Special techniques to improve transmitter spectral purity and
to suppress interference, as well as work to understand and
quantify the degree of interference that can be tolerated, are
active areas of research.
101
Sky Noise
Noise
Power
(Log Scale)
Atmospheric
Galactic
0.1
1
Frequency, GHz
100
10
Atmospheric Attenuation
Absorption. Energy is absorbed from radio waves passing
through the atmosphere primarily by the gases comprising it.
Absorption increases dramatically with frequency.
Fraction
action of Signal Getting through 1 km of Atmosphere
Atmospher
A. Sea
Level
0.00001
50
0.1
10
0.79
0.9775
0.01
10
50 100 200 300
Frequency GHz
O
O2
H
H2O
Loss
(dB/km)
0.1
0.997
10
O2
O2
30,000 ft
H2O
H 2O
1
Loss
0.1 (dB/km)
0.01
10
50 100 200 300
Frequency (GHz)
102
Energy is also absorbed by particles suspended in the atmosphere, but their principal effect is scattering.
dB/km
r
m
/h
/h
m
20 C
10
Frequency (GHz)
100
/h
m
.25
1.2
0.01
5m
mm
/h
0.01
5m
0.1
25
0m
m/
hr
15
dB/km
0.1
10
Frequency (GHz)
100
103
104
The attractiveness of the 3 cm region is threefold. First, atmospheric attenuation, though appreciable, is still reasonably
lowonly 0.02 dB/km for two-way transmission at sea level.
Second, narrow beamwidths, providing high power densities
and excellent angular resolution, can be achieved with antennas small enough to fit in the nose of a small aircraft. Third,
because of their wide use, microwave components for 3 cm
radars are readily available from a wide range of suppliers.
Where limited range is not a problem and both small size and
high angular resolution are desired, higher frequencies can be
used. Radars operating in the Ka-band, for example, have been
developed to perform ground search and terrain avoidance for
some aircraft. But because of the high level of attenuation at
these frequencies, to date there has been relatively little utilization of this band.
With the availability of suitable millimeter-wave powergenerating components, radar designers are developing
extremely small, albeit short-range, radars that take advantage of the atmospheric window at 94 GHz to give small airto-air missiles high terminal accuracies (Fig. 7-12). At 94 GHz,
a 10 cm antenna provides the same angular resolution as a
0.94 m antenna would at 10 GHz (3 cm).
Typical Frequency Selections
Earlywarningradars
UHF,L,andS-bands
Radaraltimeters
C-band
Weatherradars
C-andX-bands
Fighter/attack
X-andKu-bands
7.5 Summary
Radio frequencies employed by airborne radars range from a
few hundred megahertz to 100,000 MHz (100 GHz), the optimum frequency for any one application being a trade-off
among several factors.
In general, the lower the frequency, the greater the physical
size of the hardware and the higher the available maximum
power. The higher the frequency, the narrower the beam that
may be achieved with a given size antenna.
At frequencies above about 0.1 GHz, attenuation due to atmospheric absorptionmainly by water vapor and oxygen
becomes significant. At frequencies of 3 GHz and higher,
Further Reading
D. E. Kerr, Propagation of Short Radio Waves, IEEE Press, 1986.
M. E. Davis, Foliage Penetration Radar: Detection and
Characterization of Objects under Trees, SciTech-IET, 2011.
L. W. Barclay, Propagation of Radiowaves, 3rd ed., IET, 2012.
105