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Envelope (radar)
Radar envelope is a critical Measure of Performance (MOP) identified in the Test and Evaluation Master Plan (TEMP). This is the volume of space where a radar system is required to reliably detect an object with a specific size and speed. This is one of the requirements that must be evaluated as part of the acceptance testing process. Radar systems have natural deficiencies because the laws of physics create performance constraints that cannot be altered. The ambiguity function associated with pulse compression and scalloping associated with moving target indication are two examples. Complete coverage requires radar at multiple locations ''and'' multiple different kinds of radar. Definition Radar system specifications require a specific level of performance within a specific radar envelope. This performance includes the following characteristics. * Cross section * Blind range * Radial velocity * Instrumented range * Scan time * Altitude * Elevation angle * Bearing coverage * S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Test And Evaluation Master Plan
Test and evaluation master plan (TEMP) is a critical aspect of project management involving complex systems that must satisfy specification requirements. The TEMP is used to support programmatic events called milestone decisions that separate the individual phases of a project. For military systems, the level of funding determines the Acquisition Category and the organization responsible for the milestone decision. A traceability matrix is generally used to link items within the TEMP to items within specifications. Definition The Test and Evaluation Master Plan documents the overall structure and objectives of the Test & Evaluation for a program. It covers activities over a program’s life-cycle and identifies evaluation criteria for the testers. The test and evaluation master plan consists of individual tests. Each test contains the following. * Test Scenario * Data Collection * Performance Evaluation Test scenario The ''test scenario'' establishes test conditions. This is t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kármán Line
The Kármán line (or von Kármán line ) is an attempt to define a boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space, and offers a specific definition set by the Fédération aéronautique internationale (FAI), an international record-keeping body for aeronautics. Defining the edge of space is important for legal and regulatory purposes since aircraft and spacecraft fall under different jurisdictions and are subject to different treaties. International law does not define the edge of space, or the limit of national airspace. The FAI defines the Kármán line as space beginning above Earth's mean sea level. This number is well above the altitude reachable by a conventional airplane and is roughly where satellites, even on very eccentric trajectories, will decay before completing a single orbit. While experts disagree on exactly where the atmosphere ends and space begins, most regulatory agencies (including the United Nations) accept the FAI Kármán line definition or someth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radar Scalloping
Scalloping is a radar phenomenon that reduces sensitivity for certain distance and velocity combinations. The name is derived from the appearance of areas that are scooped out of graphs that indicate radar sensitivity. Moving objects cause a phase-shift within the transmit pulse that produces signal cancellation. This phenomenon also has detrimental effect on moving target indicator systems, where the detection scheme subtracts signals received from two or more transmit pulses. Definition There are two different types of radar scalloping. * Intra-pulse * Inter-pulse Intra-pulse Scalloping This occurs when the radial velocity of the target induces a phase shift near 360 degree within the reflected pulse, which induces signal cancellation in the receiver. Intra-pulse radar scalloping begins to become a concern above the following velocity. :Velocity > \left (\frac \right) Scalloping occurs at 150 km/s for an L-band radar with a 1 microsecond pulse. Inter-pulse Scallopin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nap-of-the-earth
Nap-of-the-earth (NOE) is a type of very low-altitude flight course used by military aircraft to avoid enemy detection and attack in a high-threat environment. Other, mostly older terms include "ground-hugging", "terrain masking", "flying under the radar" and "hedgehopping". During NOE flight, geographical features are used as cover, exploiting valleys and folds in the terrain by flying in, rather than over, them. This keeps the aircraft below enemy air defence radar coverage, avoiding being silhouetted against the sky. Purpose NOE is used to minimize detection by hostile aircraft, AWACS surveillance and control systems, ground-based radar, or attack targets. A high-flying aircraft can be detected by defense systems at long range, giving an air defense system time to react, alerting SAM and AAA systems and fighter aircraft. Using NOE flight, the approach may be undetected; the aircraft "pops up" to attack the target and then turns to escape before the enemy can respond. Dop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clutter (radar)
Clutter is a term used for unwanted echoes in electronic systems, particularly in reference to radars. Such echoes are typically returned from ground, sea, rain, animals/insects, chaff and atmospheric turbulences, and can cause serious performance issues with radar systems. Backscatter coefficient What one person considers to be clutter, another may consider to be a target. However, targets usually refer to point scatterers and clutter to extended scatterers (covering many range, angle, and Doppler cells). The clutter may fill a volume (such as rain) or be confined to a surface (like land). In principle, all that is required to estimate the radar return (backscatter) from a region of clutter is a knowledge of the volume or surface illuminated and the echo per unit volume, η, or per unit surface area, σ° (the backscatter coefficient). Clutter-limited or noise-limited radar In addition to any possible clutter there will also always be noise. The total signal competing with t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prevailing Winds
In meteorology, prevailing wind in a region of the Earth's surface is a surface wind that blows predominantly from a particular direction. The dominant winds are the trends in direction of wind with the highest speed over a particular point on the Earth's surface at any given time. A region's prevailing and dominant winds are the result of global patterns of movement in the Earth's atmosphere. In general, winds are predominantly easterly at low latitudes globally. In the mid-latitudes, westerly winds are dominant, and their strength is largely determined by the polar cyclone. In areas where winds tend to be light, the sea breeze/land breeze cycle is the most important cause of the prevailing wind; in areas which have variable terrain, mountain and valley breezes dominate the wind pattern. Highly elevated surfaces can induce a thermal low, which then augments the environmental wind flow. Wind roses are tools used to display the direction of the prevailing wind. Knowledge of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Littoral Zone
The littoral zone or nearshore is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. In coastal ecology, the littoral zone includes the intertidal zone extending from the high water mark (which is rarely inundated), to coastal areas that are permanently submerged — known as the ''foreshore'' — and the terms are often used interchangeably. However, the geographical meaning of ''littoral zone'' extends well beyond the intertidal zone to include all neritic waters within the bounds of continental shelves. Etymology The word ''littoral'' may be used both as a noun and as an adjective. It derives from the Latin noun ''litus, litoris'', meaning "shore". (The doubled ''t'' is a late-medieval innovation, and the word is sometimes seen in the more classical-looking spelling ''litoral''.) Description The term has no single definition. What is regarded as the full extent of the littoral zone, and the way the littoral zone is divided into subregions, varies in different c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Continuous-wave Radar
Continuous-wave radar (CW 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. Individual objects can be detected using the Doppler effect, which causes the received signal to have a different frequency from the transmitted signal, allowing it to be detected by filtering out the transmitted frequency. Doppler-analysis of radar returns can allow the filtering out of slow or non-moving objects, thus offering immunity to interference from large stationary objects and slow-moving clutter. This makes it particularly useful for looking for objects against a background reflector, for instance, allowing a high-flying aircraft to look for aircraft flying at low altitude against the background of the surface. Because the very strong reflection off the surface can be filtered out, the much smaller reflection from a target can still be seen. CW radar systems are used at both ends of the range ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pulse-Doppler Radar
A pulse-Doppler radar is a radar system that determines the range to a target using pulse-timing techniques, and uses the Doppler effect of the returned signal to determine the target object's velocity. It combines the features of pulse radars and continuous-wave radars, which were formerly separate due to the complexity of the electronics. The first operational Pulse Doppler radar was in the CIM-10 Bomarc, an American long range supersonic missile powered by ramjet engines, and which was armed with a W40 nuclear weapon to destroy entire formations of attacking enemy aircraft. Pulse-Doppler systems were first widely used on fighter aircraft starting in the 1960s. Earlier radars had used pulse-timing in order to determine range and the angle of the antenna (or similar means) to determine the bearing. However, this only worked when the radar antenna was not pointed down; in that case the reflection off the ground overwhelmed any returns from other objects. As the ground moves at the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fan-beam Antenna
A fan-beam antenna is a directional antenna producing a main beam having a narrow beamwidth in one dimension and a wider beamwidth in the other dimension. This pattern will be achieved by a truncated paraboloid reflector or a circular paraboloid reflector. Since the reflector is narrow in the vertical plane and wide in the horizontal, it produces a beam that is wide in the vertical plane and narrow in the horizontal. (The larger the antenna dimension, the narrower the beam.) Principle In a parabolic antenna A parabolic antenna is an antenna that uses a parabolic reflector, a curved surface with the cross-sectional shape of a parabola, to direct the radio waves. The most common form is shaped like a dish and is popularly called a dish antenna or pa ..., the feed horn is placed at the focal point and irradiate the reflector. The latter send back in space a highly focused parallel beam that one can describe as pencil shape. When one removes a section of the paraboloid, ray ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radiation Pattern
In the field of antenna design the term radiation pattern (or antenna pattern or far-field pattern) refers to the ''directional'' (angular) dependence of the strength of the radio waves from the antenna or other source.Constantine A. Balanis: “Antenna Theory, Analysis and Design”, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2nd ed. 1982 David K Cheng: “Field and Wave Electromagnetics”, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company Inc., Edition 2, 1998. Edward C. Jordan & Keith G. Balmain; “Electromagnetic Waves and Radiating Systems” (2nd ed. 1968) Prentice-Hall. Particularly in the fields of fiber optics, lasers, and integrated optics, the term radiation pattern may also be used as a synonym for the near-field pattern or Fresnel pattern.Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, “The IEEE standard dictionary of electrical and electronics terms”; 6th ed. New York, N.Y., Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, c1997. IEEE Std 100-1996. d. Standards Coordinating Committee 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
