Doppler radar is a type of weather radar system that measures the direction and speed of moving objects.

Doppler radar is typically used to watch winds, storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, and other types of Doppler Radar works on Doppler Effect. It emits specific sound or radio waves. These are reflected from a surface. Reflected waves are catched by receiver and internal circuit estimates distance of object.More

What is doppler radar used for?

Doppler radar is a specialized radar system that helps meteorologists predict short-term weather and analyze large storm systems, such as tornadoes, hurricanes and severe thunderstorms. In weather radar systems, an antenna sends radio waves...More

Doppler radar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There are four ways of producing the Doppler effect. Radars may be:

Coherent pulsed (CP), Pulse-doppler radar, Continuous wave (CW), or Frequency modulated (FM).

.Doppler radars were also used as a navigation aid for aircraft. By directly measuring the movement of the ground with the radar, and then comparing this to the airspeed returned from the aircraft instruments, the wind speed could be accurately determined for the first time. This value was then used for highly accurate dead reckoning. One early example of such a system was the Green Satin radarused in the English Electric Canberra. This system used a pulsed signal sent at a very low repetition rate to allow a single antenna to be used for both transmit and receive. An oscillator was used to hold the reference frequency for comparison to the received signal. In practice, the initial "fix" was taken using a radio navigation system, normally Gee, and

the Green Satin then provided accurate long-distance navigation beyond Gee's 350 mile range. Similar systems were used in a number of aircraft of the era,[7] and were combined with the main search radars of fighters designs by the 1960s. Doppler systems are light enough for mobile ground surveillance associated with infantry and surface ships. These detect motion from vehicles and personnel for night and all weather combat operation. Modern police radar are a smaller more portable version of these systems.[8][9] Early Doppler radar sets relied on large analog filters to achieve acceptable performance. Analog filters, waveguide, and amplifiers pick up vibration like microphones, so bulky vibration damping is required. That extra weight imposed unacceptable kinematic performance limitations that restricted aircraft use to night operation, heavy weather, and heavy jamming environments until the 1970s. Digital fast fourier transform filtering became practical when modern microprocessors became available during the 1970s. This was immediately connected to coherent pulsed radars, where velocity information was extracted. This proved useful in both weather and air traffic control radars. The velocity information provided another input to the software tracker, and improved computer tracking. Because of the low Pulse Repetition Frequency (PRF) of most coherent pulsed radars, which maximizes the coverage in range, the amount of doppler processing is limited. The doppler processor can only process velocities up to 1/2 the PRF of the radar. This is not a problem for weather radars. Velocity information for aircraft cannot be extracted directly from low PRF radar because of sampling restricts measurements to about 75 mile per hour. Specialized radars quickly were developed when digital techniques became light weight and more affordable. Pulse-Doppler radarscombine all the benefits of long range and high velocity capability. Pulse-Doppler radars use a medium to high PRF (on the order of 3 to 30 kHz). This medium PRF allows for the detection of either high speed targets or high resolution velocity measurements. Normally it is one or the other; a radar designed for detecting targets from zero to Mach 2 does not have a high resolution in speed, while a radar designed for high resolution velocity measurements does not have a wide range of speeds. Weather radars are high resolution velocity radars, while air defense radars have a large range of velocity detection, but the accuracy in velocity is in the 10's of knots. Antenna designs for the CW and FM-CW started out as separate transmit and receive antennas before the advent of affordable microwave designs. In the late 1960s traffic radars began being produced which used a single antenna. This was made possible by the use of circular polarization and a multi-port waveguide section operating at X band. By the late 1970s this changed to linear

polarization and the use of ferrite circulators at both X and K bands. PD radars operate at too high a PRF to use a transmit-receive gas filled switch, and most use solid-state devices to protect the receiver low noise amplifier when the transmitter is fired.

[edit]See

also

Radar gun Continuous-wave radar Semi-active radar homing

[edit]References

1.

^ CopRadar.com -- subsidiary of Sawicki Enterprises (1999-2000). "Police Traffic Radars". CopRadar.com -- subsidiary of Sawicki Enterprises. Retrieved July 17, 2009.

2.

^ CopRadar.com -- subsidiary of Sawicki Enterprises (1999-2000). "Doppler Principles (Police Traffic Radar Handbook)". CopRadar.com -- subsidiary of Sawicki Enterprises. Retrieved July 17, 2009.

3. 4.

^ Ditchburn, R.W. "Light", 1961, 1991. Dover publications Inc., pp331-333 ^ Jaffe, Bernard M., "Forward Reflection of Light by a Moving Mirror," American Journal of Physics, Vol. 41, April 1973, p577-578

5.

^ Ridenour, "Radar System Engineering", MIT Radiation Lab series, vol 1, year 1947, page 629

6. 7. 8. 9.

^ "How Was Your Speed Measured?". NOLO Law for All. ^ John Barry, "Doppler Navigator Development", Friends of the CRC, 17 September 1973 ^ "Ground Surveillance Radar Section". 1st Battalion 50th Infantry Association. ^ "AN/SPG-51 Gun and Missile Fire Control Radar". Jane's Information Group.

[edit]Further

reading

Luck, David G. C. (1949). Frequency Modulated Radar. New York: McGraw-Hill.

[edit]External

links

Description of Doppler shift used in Continuous wave Doppler radar

Doppler radar is a listening device that uses microwaves to "hear" physical changes. Microwaves reflect off objects at different times based on their relative position to theDoppler radar. Based on how quickly waves bounce back, a precise picture can be created. It is typically used in air traffic control, police speed control guns, and radiology. Commonly associated with meteorology, the pulse-Doppler can measure both distance and velocity.

This technology is based on the Doppler effect. Using this science, if a stationary object is shooting microwaves at a moving object, the velocity of waves will change as the position of the moving object changes. For instance, if microwaves are focused on a person walking toward the radar, these waves would become taller and more frequent as the person moved closer to the machine. This is because distance between the object and radar is shorter and the waves have less space to travel. The opposite is also true, meaning if a moving target were to walk away from the microwave source, the waves would lengthen and shorten as distance between the two increased. At some point, these waves may become so stretched they appear flat. In order to create pictures from these microwaves, a constant communication between the radar and object must be maintained. This communication requires a continuous output and input of waves. AdChoices

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There are many physical uses for Doppler imaging. In air traffic control, waves are used to see the position of planes in the sky. A constant stream of wave communication can be interpreted by personal computers as a moving image. Air traffic controllers see planes in air as moving representations of their physical locations, with only a slight delay in real time. Police also use Doppler radar. A radar gun shoots radio waves at a moving object. These waves hit the object, like a car, and bounce back, but instead of offering object location, waves are measured for object velocity. Radar guns may also be used in sports, to time runner and baseball speeds. The medical field uses digital Doppler to save lives. In this use, electromagnetic waves are used to give doctors a visual representation of the inside of a body, without cutting the skin. These waves can create a two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D) views of organs or foreign substances

in the body. Pregnancy ultrasound uses 2D and 3D Doppler to give parents and obstetricians a baby's first picture. As technology advanced, the science of Doppler imaging pulse-Doppler was created. PulseDoppler radar is able to measure both location and speed of an object. In terms of meteorology, waves are bounced off clouds to measure their density, location, and speed. AdChoices

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Related Videos

LEARN MORE ABOUT DOPPLER RADAR What Is Doppler Radar? When severe weather hits, the most important piece of weather equipment KLTV has is the StormTracker7 Live Doppler Radar Network. Doppler Radar is a weather instrument specially designed to monitor wind turbulence in a storm by bouncing a radar beam off of raindrops or hail, then determining frequency shifts.More >> How Doppler Radar Works Radar systems gather information by bouncing radio waves off of objects. Weather forecasters examine rainfall and other weather events using a special kind of radar called Doppler radar. A high-powered antenna rotates and sends out pulses of radio waves.More >>

Learn more about how radar works

Doppler radars not only perform this function, but they are also able to measure the speed of movement of the reflecting particle as well. Generally as precipitation falls it moves with the wind, so the Doppler radar can measure this movement and provide wind information as well as rainfall intensity. This gives more information and a better understanding of current weather to the radar data user.

The Doppler Effect

Doppler radars derive their name due to the method with which they measure the velocities. The Doppler Effect was proposed by Christian Andreas Doppler in 1842, and states that the frequency of a wave, perceived by an observer, varies with the motion of the source of the wave relative to the observer. This effect is most commonly noticed with sound waves, an example of which is the apparent lowering in pitch of an ambulance siren as the vehicle moves past. The Doppler Effect is also used in devices to measure the speed of cars and even the speed of a ball in sport.

How Doppler Radar Measures Winds

Doppler radars measure the phase of each pulse of energy as it returns to the radar, and any changes in phase can be related to motion of the reflecting particles. This is a similar effect to the change in frequency, hence the name Doppler radar.

Learn more about phase changes and velocity measurement

Radial Wind
The wind velocity can be separated into two components known as the radial and transverse components, and these are displayed in Figure 1. The radar is only able to sense the motion directly along the radial, either towards or away from the radar, because the transverse component has no effect on the phase of the returning electromagnetic wave. Hence the total wind speed is not measured, only the portion that is directed towards or away from the radar. This is an important concept to understand when interpreting Doppler wind images.

Figure 1. The radial and transverse components of velocity. In Figure 2, the wind direction is from left to right of page, and is represented by the black lines. The component of the total velocities that is towards or away from the radar is shown by the blue and red lines, and these are the radial velocities. At the locations marked as A and B, the total wind velocity is entirely down the radial, so the radar

will display the total velocity. The radial component decreases away from these points, to such an extent that at position C the total wind is entirely transverse and the radar would display zero wind speed.

Figure 2: Radial components of total wind as seen from Doppler radar.

Maximum Velocity
The maximum velocity that can be correctly displayed by a Doppler radar is known as the Nyquist velocity, and this is dependent on the wavelength and frequency of pulses emitted by the radar. Common Nyquist velocities for Bureau of Meteorology Doppler radars are 95km/hr and 140km/hr.

Radar Adelaide (Buckland Park) Brisbane (Mt Stapylton) Darwin (Berrimah) Emerald Melbourne Namoi Sydney (Terrey Hills) Wollongong (Appin) Yarrawonga

Maximum Velocity (Nyquist Velocity) 141 km/hr 188 km/hr 96 km/hr 141 km/hr 188 km/hr 141 km/hr 94 km/hr 140 km/hr 96 km/hr

So what happens if the radial velocity is larger than the Nyquist velocity? In this situation we commonly see velocity aliasing, where the displayed velocity "wraps around" to the other end of the palette.

Learn more about velocity aliasing

Maximum Doppler Range

The electromagnetic waves that weather radars emit travel at the speed of light. Therefore, by measuring the time it takes for a single pulse to return, the distance of the reflecting particle from the radar can be calculated. Doppler weather radars emit between 500 and 1000 pulses every second, but the pulses are so short that the radar still spends 99.8% of its time "listening" for returning pulses. At 1000 pulses per second, the maximum distance that a pulse can travel out to a reflecting particle and then return to the radar before the next pulse is emitted is 150 kilometres. This is the maximum Doppler range and no data is displayed outside this range. The maximum Doppler range for each Bureau of Meteorology radar is listed in the below table.

Radar Adelaide (Buckland Park) Brisbane (Mt Stapylton) Darwin (Berrimah) Emerald Melbourne Namoi Sydney (Terrey Hills) Wollongong (Appin) Yarrawonga

How Doppler Winds Are Portrayed

Maximum Doppler Range 200 km 150 km 150 km 200 km 150 km 200 km 300 km 200 km 150 km

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