What is radar? What systems are currently in use? How do they work? Understanding Radar Systems provides engineers and scientists with answers to these critical questions, focusing on actual radar systems in use today.

It's the perfect resource for those just entering the field or a quick refresher for experienced practitioners. The book leads readers through the specialized language and calculations that comprise the complex world of modern radar engineering as seen in dozens of state-of-the-art radar systems.

Key Features
- Covers Over-the-Horizon Radar, Synthetic Aperture Radar, Ground-probing Radar, Bistatic Radar, and more! All the major, state-of-the-art radar systems in use today. Extensive, clearly-written technical analysis of the future of radar, based on systems now in development.
- Written at a level that enables a new entrant to the field to understand the basics and do rough performance calculations.
- The authors stress practical concepts that apply to all radar, keeping math to a minimum. Most of the book is based on real radar systems rather than theoretical studies.

1. Fundamentals: What is radar?
A simple radar explained · Overview of radar frequencies · Antenna gain · The radar equation · Accuracy and resolution · Integration time and the doppler shift

2. Designing a surveillance radar
Radar and surveillance Antenna beamwidth considerations · Pulse repetition frequency and unambiguous range and velocities · Pulse length and sampling · Radar cross-section · Clutter · Noise · Final design

3. Tracking Radar
Sequential lobing · Conical scanning · Monopulse radar · Tracking accuracy · Frequency agility · The tracking process · Radar guidance

4. Radar Detection Theory
The basis for decision making — probability theory · The effects of the receiver on the noise distribution · The distribution of signal plus noise · The signal-to-noise ratio · Detection and false-alarm probabilities · The correlation receiver · The matched filter · Key elements of signal detection · Detection using multiple observations · Modifications for intermediate-frequency input to the receiver · Target fluctuations — the Swerling cases

5. Signal and Data Processing
Properties of clutter · Moving target indicator processing · Fast Fourier transform processing · Thresholding · Plot extraction · Plot-track association · Track initiation · Tracking

6. Designing Radar Waveforms
Bandwidth and pulse duration · Range and doppler accuracy — the uncertainty relation · Resolution · The ambiguity function · Examples of the ambiguity function · Pulse compression · Chirp · Phase coding

7. Secondary surveillance radar
Basic principles · Problems with secondary surveillance radar · Multipath · Mode S and the future

8. Propagation Aspects
The radar horizon · Atmospheric effects · Diffraction by the terrain · Battlefield radar systems · Ionospheric effects

9. Radar Studies of the Atmosphere
Scattering mechanisms · Mesosphere-stratosphere-troposphere radar · Meteor wind radar · Other radar studies of the atmosphere

10. Over-the-horizon Radar
Surface-wave radar · Skywave radar · Skywave propagation and frequency management · The over-the-horizon radar equation · Problems with high-frequency radar

11. Radar Remote Sensing
High-frequency radar scattering from the sea · Measuring ocean currents · Measuring waves · The future of high-frequency remote sensing · Microwave scatterometry · Radar altimetry · Synthetic aperture radar

12. Ground-probing Radar
Designing ground-probing radar systems · Carrier-free radar · Antenna designs · Data processing13. Multistatic Radar: Multistatic concepts · The bistatic radar equation · Multistatic target location · Bistatic doppler · Applications

14. Electronic Warfare
Objectives and definitions · Noise jamming and the radar equation · Types of electronic countermeasures and electronic counter-countermeasures · Stealth applications

15. Recent Developments
Phased arrays · Digital beamforming · Active arrays · Multifunction radar · Multihead radar · High-resolution radar techniques

16. The Future of Radar
Introduction · Developing the concept of bandwidth · Adaptivity

Five Appendices · Bibliography · Index

*NOTE: Most chapters also include a general introduction, a chapter summary, references, further reading, and problems. Solutions to problems appear in Appendix V.

Dr. Simon Kingsley is a lecturer at Sheffield University. He began a lifetime career in radar research with a PhD project that used radar to study the upper atmosphere. After a period as an advanced research fellow, he joined the Marconi Research Centre and led a group concerned with long range radar detection and tracking theory. In 1987 he joined Sheffield University to concentrate on the development of radar techniques, mainly for remote sensing.

Dr. Shaun Quegan is Director of the Sheffield Centre for Earth Observation Science and leads its Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Research Group.