How Radar Works

The Basic Idea:

The basic idea behind radar is very simple: a signal is
transmitted, it bounces off an object and it is later
received by some type of receiver. This is like the type
of thing that happens when sound echo's off a wall.
(Check out the image on the left) However radars
don't use sound as a signal. Instead they use certain
kinds of electromagnetic waves called radio waves
and microwaves. This is where the name RADAR
comes from (RAdio Detection And Ranging). Sound is
used as a signal to detect objects in devices called
SONAR (SOund NAvigation Ranging). Another type of
signal used that is relatively new is laser light that is
used in devices called LIDAR (you guessed it...LIght
Detection And Ranging).
Radio waves and microwaves are two types of
electromagnetic waves. Electromagnetic waves,
which I will call EM waves, like all waves transport
energy but can do so through a vacuum. Sound
waves and ocean waves require matter to transport
energy but EM waves can do so without the presence
of matter. Because of this, satellites can use radars to
work on projects outside of the Earth's atmosphere
and on other planets. Another useful thing about EM
waves is that they travel at a constant speed through a
vacuum called the speed of light abbreviated by the
letter "c" (299,792,458 meters per second). This is
very useful to know to when doing ranging
calculations. To learn more about EM waves or waves
in general, please visit The Physics Classroom. Radio
waves have wavelengths that are 10 cm and greater
and microwaves have wavelengths that range from 10
cm to 1/10 of a mm. (Check out the Electromagnetic
Spectrum) Once the radar receives the returned signal,
it calculates useful information from it such as the
time taken for it to be received, the strength of the
returned signal, or the change in frequency of the
signal. This information is then translated to reveal
useful data: an image, a position or the velocity of
your speeding car.




A basic radar system is spilt up into a transmitter, switch, antenna, receiver, data
recorder, processor and some sort of output display. Everything starts with the
transmitter as it transmits a high power pulse to a switch which then directs the
pulse to be transmitted out an antenna. Just after the antenna is finished
transmitting the pulse, the switch switches control to the receiver which allows
the antenna to receive echoed signals. Once the signals are received the switch
then transfers control back to the transmitter to transmit another signal. The
switch may toggle control between the transmitter and the receiver as much as
1000 times per second.
Any received signals from the receiver are then sent to a data recorder for
storage on a disk or tape. Later the data must be processed to be interpreted into
something useful which would go on a display.

Pulse Width and Bandwidth:
Some radar transmitters do not transmit constant, uninterrupted
electromagnetic waves. Instead, they transmit rhythmic pulses of EM waves with
a set amount of time in between each pulse. The pulse itself would consist of an
EM wave of several wavelengths with some dead time after it in which there are
no transmissions. The time between each pulse is called the pulse repetition
time (PRT) and the number of pulses transmitted in one second is called thepulse
repetition frequency (PRF). The time taken for each pulse to be transmitted is
called the pulse width (PW) orpulse duration. Typically they can be around 0.1
microseconds long for penetrating radars or 10-50 microseconds long for
imaging radars (a microsecond is a millionth of a second).

In math language, the above can be said...
PRT =1 / PRF
or
PRF =1 / PRT
And for all you visual learners out there, this is what it looks like...


RT means repetition time.
However, the above diagram is not quite realistic for several reasons. One
reason why it is not realistic is that the frequency in waves of the pulses are the
same. In real life the frequency of the waves are not the same and they change as
time goes on. This is called frequency modulation which means the frequency
changes or modulates.
It looks something like this...


Think of this as one pulse. All the pulses will look something like this.
On the above diagram, the frequency of the wave is low on the left and it slowly
increases as you look right. The different frequencies of the wave will lie in a
range called bandwidth. Radars use bandwidth for several reasons regarding the
resolution of a data image, memory of the radar and overuse of the transmitter.
For instance, a high bandwidth can yield a finer resolution but take up more
memory.

When an EM wave hits a surface, it gets partly reflected away from the surface
and refracted into the surface. The amount of reflection and refraction depends
on the properties of the surface and the properties of the matter which the wave
was originally traveling through. (To find out more on reflection and refraction
please visit The Physics Classroom) This is what happens to radar signals when
they hit objects. If a radar signal hits a surface that is perfectly flat then the
signal gets reflected in a single direction (the same is true for refraction). If the
signal hits a surface that is not perfectly flat (like all surfaces on Earth) then it
gets reflected in all directions. Only a very small fraction of the original signal is
transmitted back in the direction of the receiver. This small fraction is what is
known as backscatter. The typical power of a transmitted signal is around 1 kilo-
watt and the typical power of the backscatter can be around 10 watts.
To determine the range of a distant object that reflected a radar signal, the
receiver must record the time when the signal was received and compare it to
when that signal was transmitted. This time is the time taken for the radio wave
to propagate to the object and back to the antenna. Since all EM waves travel at
the speed of light in a vacuum, 299,792,458 meters per second (Air is not quite a
vacuum but EM waves still travel through it at approximately this speed) it is very
easy to determine how far away the object is (just multiply the speed of light by
the time for the signal to get received). Another thing the radar does when it
receives a signal is determine how strong it is. For ground penetrating radars the
strength of the signal can tell how much the beds under the surface have
different properties. A higher received power indicates a larger difference
between neighboring beds.