Radar Data and Relationships

Linear

Radar Bands

dB Scale

10000

40 dB

Band

Frequency Range

Value

High Frequency (HF)

3 30 MHz

Very High Frequency

(VHF)

30 300 MHz

138 144 MHz

216 225 MHz

Ultra High Frequency

(UHF)

300 MHz 1 GHz

420450 MHz
890 942 MHz

1000

30 dB

1 2 GHz

1.2151.400 GHz

500

27 dB

24 GHz

2.3 2.5 GHz

2.73.7 GHz

23 dB

48 GHz

5.25 0 5.925 GHz

20 dB

812 GHz

8.50010.680 GHz

Ku (under K-band)

12 18 GHz

13.414.0 GHz
15.717.7 GHz

1827 GHz

24.05 24.25 GHz

24.65 24.75 GHz

10 dB

Ka (above K-band)

2740 GHz

33.436.0 GHz

7 dB

40 75 GHz

59.064.0 GHz

75 110 GHz

3 dB

76.081.0 GHz
92.0 100.0 GHz

0 dB

mm

100300 GHz

126.0142.0 GHz
144.0149.0 GHz
231.0235.0 GHz
238.0248.0 GHz

100

10

0.5

3 dB

0.2

7 dB

0.1

10 dB

Atmospheric Attentuation (one-way)

Wavelength (mm)
30
100

20 dB

0.005

23 dB

0.002

27 dB

0.001

30 dB

0.0001

10

4
2
1

1.5

1.0

Sea Level

0.04
0.02
0.01

H 2O

O2

H 2O

O2
H 2O
15

20

25

9150 Meters Altitude

30

40

50 60

70 80 90 100

150

200 250 300

Frequency (GHz)

Time Delay
Table of Constants
Constant
Speed of light
Permittivity of free space

A time delay of...

Symbol
c

Value
2.99792458

8.85

Permeability of free space

m0

4p

Impedance of free space

377 V

Bolztmanns constant

1.38

10

10 m/s

1 nanosecond (ns)

0.5 feet (ft)

0.15 km

1 microsecond (ms)
10 23 J/K

15 centimeters (cm)
6 inches (in)

F/m

10 7 H/m

...is approximately equivalent

to a radar range of...
0.15 meters (m)

3 3 108 m/s
12

0.8

0.4
0.2
0.1

0.004
0.002
0.001
10

40 dB

15

40
20
10

Attenuation (dB/km)

0.01

20

150 meters (m)

0.1 (0.093) miles
500 (492) feet (ft)

400

Resolution
Dimension

Resolution with
Matched Filter

Peak Power Form,

Single Pulse

Comments

ct
2

simple pulse, length t

Search Form

c
2B

arbitrary waveform,
bandwidth B Hz

Track Form

Ru 3

real beam imaging

Range (D R)

Cross-range
(DCR)

Major Forms of the Radar Range Equation

lR =

lR
2D SAR

2vTa

l
2g

synthetic aperture imaging

v = platform velocity
Ta = aperture time
D SAR = synthetic aperture size
synthetic aperture imaging
g = integration angle

Values of Doppler Shift

Radio Frequency f
Band
Frequency (GHz)

Doppler Shift fD (Hz)

1 m/s
1 knot
1mph

6.67

3.43

2.98

20.0

10.3

8.94

SNR =

2
Pave A3e km
=
l4 L ST0 F

SNR

Receiver bandwidth
System losses

Pt

Peak transmitted power

Noise figure

Pavg

Average transmitted
power

Boltzmanns constant

Gt

Transmit antenna gain

Search area solid angle

Gr

Receive antenna gain

Tfs

Frame search time

Ae

Effective Aperture

km

Track measurement
error slope

Wavelength

Track measurement rate

Target radar cross

section

Ni

Number of targets

su

Track angle estimate

precision (std. dev.)

uscan

Scan angle, electronicallyscanned array

20.5

17.9

66.7

34.3

29.8

Range to target

Ku

16

107

54.9

47.7

T0

Ka

35

233

120

104

Standard temperature
(290 K)

95

633

326

283

Antenna Beamwidth & Gain

Swerling Models

3-dB Beamwidth (u )

Synthetic array

l /l radians
l /2l radians

Probability Density
Function of RCS s

Circular antenna

3-dB Beamwidth (u )

Exponential,
1
s
exp
ps(s) =
s
s

Antenna Gain
Uniform illumination

Gain

cos5 (uscan)

Ls

40.0

l /d radians

krN1R4
s . su2

p2
2

Signal-to-noise ratio

Uniform illumination

V
Tfs

SNRmin Minimum detectable SNR

10

Real antenna

R4
s

Definition of Terms:

Antenna Beamwidth

( )( )
( )( ) (
)

Pave Ae
$ SNRmin4p k
LST0F

Linear antenna of length l

P t Gt G r l 2 s
(4p)3 kT0 BFL S R 4

[ ]

Decorrelation
Scan-to-Scan
Pulse-to-Pulse
Case 1

Case 2

Case 3

Case 4

Chi-square, degree 4,

4p / uaue

where ua = Azimuth beamwidth and ue = Elevation beamwidth

p(s) =

[ ]

4s
2s
exp
s2
s