Radar Horizon
The radar horizon is a critical area of performance for aircraft detection systems that is defined by the distance at which the radar beam rises enough above the Earth's surface to make detection of a target at low level impossible. It is associated with the low elevation region of performance, and its geometry depends on terrain, radar height, and signal processing. This is associated with the notions of ''radar shadow'', the ''clutter zone'', and the ''clear zone''. Airborne objects can exploit the radar shadow zone and clutter zone to avoid radar detection by using a technique called nap-of-the-earth navigation. Definition Without taking into account the refraction through the atmosphere, the radar horizon would be the geometrical distance D_h from the radar to the horizon only taking into account the height H of the radar above sea-level, and the radius of the earth R_e (approximately 6.4·103 km): :D_h = \sqrt When H is small compared to R_e, this can be approxima ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Low Elevation Region
Low or LOW or lows, may refer to: People * Low (surname), listing people surnamed Low Places * Low, Quebec, Canada * Low, Utah, United States * Lo Wu station (MTR code LOW), Hong Kong; a rail station * Salzburg Airport (ICAO airport code: LOWS), Austria Music * Low (band), an American indie rock group from Duluth, Minnesota Albums * ''Low'' (David Bowie album), 1977 * ''Low'' (Testament album), 1994 * ''Low'' (Low EP), 1994 Songs * "Low" (Cracker song), 1993 * "Low" (Flo Rida song), 2007 * "Low" (Foo Fighters song), 2002 * "Low" (Juicy J song), 2014 * "Low" (Kelly Clarkson song), 2003 * "Low" (Lenny Kravitz song), 2018 * "Low" (Sara Evans song), 2008 * "Low", by Camp Mulla * "Low", by Coldplay from '' X&Y'' * "Low", by Inna from the self-titled album * "Low", by Marianas Trench from ''Fix Me'' * "Low", by R.E.M. from '' Out of Time'' * "Low", by Silverchair from ''Young Modern'' * "Low", by Sleeping with Sirens from ''Feel'' * "Low", by Tech N9ne from '' K.O.D.'' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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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]   |
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Hull-down
In sailing and warfare, hull-down means that the upper part of a vessel or vehicle is visible, but the main, lower body ( hull) is not; the term hull-up means that all of the body is visible. The terms originated with sailing and naval warfare in which the curvature of the earth causes an approaching vessel to be first visible "sails-up". Beginning in the 20th century, ''hull-down'' has also been used in armoured warfare. In modern armoured warfare, hull-down is a position taken up by an armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) so that its hull (the main part of the vehicle) is behind a crest or other raised ground, but its turret (or a superstructure or roof-mounted weapon) is exposed. Turret-down is the position in which the vehicle's crew can observe forward from roof hatches, but the vehicle is completely hidden (usually a few metres further back from a hull-down position). The belly armour should not be exposed, because it is vulnerable to even modest antitank weapons. Ships When ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Line-of-sight Propagation
Line-of-sight propagation is a characteristic of electromagnetic radiation or acoustic wave propagation which means waves travel in a direct path from the source to the receiver. Electromagnetic transmission includes light emissions traveling in a straight line. The rays or waves may be diffracted, refracted, reflected, or absorbed by the atmosphere and obstructions with material and generally cannot travel over the horizon or behind obstacles. In contrast to line-of-sight propagation, at low frequency (below approximately 3 MHz) due to diffraction, radio waves can travel as ground waves, which follow the contour of the Earth. This enables AM radio stations to transmit beyond the horizon. Additionally, frequencies in the shortwave bands between approximately 1 and 30 MHz, can be refracted back to Earth by the ionosphere, called skywave or "skip" propagation, thus giving radio transmissions in this range a potentially global reach. However, at frequencies above ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ionosphere
The ionosphere () is the ionized part of the upper atmosphere of Earth, from about to above sea level, a region that includes the thermosphere and parts of the mesosphere and exosphere. The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an important role in atmospheric electricity and forms the inner edge of the magnetosphere. It has practical importance because, among other functions, it influences radio propagation to distant places on Earth. History of discovery As early as 1839, the German mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss postulated that an electrically conducting region of the atmosphere could account for observed variations of Earth's magnetic field. Sixty years later, Guglielmo Marconi received the first trans-Atlantic radio signal on December 12, 1901, in St. John's, Newfoundland (now in Canada) using a kite-supported antenna for reception. The transmitting station in Poldhu, Cornwall, used a spark-gap transmitter to produce a signal with a freq ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Over-the-horizon Radar
Over-the-horizon radar (OTH), sometimes called beyond the horizon radar (BTH), is a type of radar system with the ability to detect targets at very long ranges, typically hundreds to thousands of kilometres, beyond the radar horizon, which is the distance limit for ordinary radar. Several OTH radar systems were deployed starting in the 1950s and 1960s as part of early warning radar systems, but these have generally been replaced by airborne early warning systems. OTH radars have recently been making a comeback, as the need for accurate long-range tracking becomes less important with the ending of the Cold War, and less-expensive ground-based radars are once again being considered for roles such as maritime reconnaissance and drug enforcement. Technology The frequency of radio waves used by most radars, in the form of microwaves, travel in straight lines. This generally limits the detection range of radar systems to objects on their horizon (generally referred to as "line of sig ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pulse-Doppler Signal Processing
Pulse-Doppler signal processing is a radar and CEUS performance enhancement strategy that allows small high-speed objects to be detected in close proximity to large slow moving objects. Detection improvements on the order of 1,000,000:1 are common. Small fast moving objects can be identified close to terrain, near the sea surface, and inside storms. This signal processing strategy is used in pulse-Doppler radar and multi-mode radar, which can then be pointed into regions containing a large number of slow-moving reflectors without overwhelming computer software and operators. Other signal processing strategies, like moving target indication, are more appropriate for benign clear blue sky environments. It is also used to measure blood flow in Doppler ultrasonography. Environment Pulse-Doppler begins with coherent pulses transmitted through an antenna or transducer. There is no modulation on the transmit pulse. Each pulse is a perfectly clean slice of a perfect coherent tone. Th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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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]   |
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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]   |
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Moving Target Indication
Moving target indication (MTI) is a mode of operation of a radar to discriminate a target against the clutter. It describes a variety of techniques used for finding moving objects, like an aircraft, and filter out unmoving ones, like hills or trees. It contrasts with the modern stationary target indication (STI) technique, which uses details of the signal to directly determine the mechanical properties of the reflecting objects and thereby find targets whether they are moving or not. Early MTI systems generally used an acoustic delay line to store a single pulse of the received signal for exactly the time between broadcasts (the pulse repetition frequency). This stored pulse will be sent to the display along with the next received pulse. The result was that the signal from any objects that did not move mixed with the stored signal and became muted out. Only signals that changed, because they moved, remained on the display. These were subject to a wide variety of noise effects that m ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Terrain
Terrain or relief (also topographical relief) involves the vertical and horizontal dimensions of land surface. The term bathymetry is used to describe underwater relief, while hypsometry studies terrain relative to sea level. The Latin word (the root of ''terrain'') means "earth." In physical geography, terrain is the lay of the land. This is usually expressed in terms of the elevation, slope, and orientation of terrain features. Terrain affects surface water flow and distribution. Over a large area, it can affect weather and climate patterns. Importance The understanding of terrain is critical for many reasons: * The terrain of a region largely determines its suitability for human settlement: flatter alluvial plains tend to have better farming soils than steeper, rockier uplands. * In terms of environmental quality, agriculture, hydrology and other interdisciplinary sciences; understanding the terrain of an area assists the understanding of watershed boundaries, dra ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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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]   |