RADAR MINIMUN ALTITUDE DETECTION AT 25 MILES - RF Cafe Forums

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jpemusic
 Post subject: RADAR MINIMUN ALTITUDE DETECTION AT 25 MILES
Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 4:01 pm 
 
Lieutenant

Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 3:28 pm

Posts: 2

Hello all,

I need to know if an X Band radar antenna is sitting flat 10 feet off of the ground with vertical search beams that scan from -2 degrees up to 45 degrees what is the minimun altitude that it can detect a moving target the size of a Cessna 152 aircraft at 25 miles taking the curvature of the earth and other propagation factors into consideration and no line of sight obstructions. The radar has a max detection range of 45 miles. So please assume that it has plenty of power, antenna gain and receiver sensitivity.

Thank You in advance
 
   
 
fred47
 Post subject: Re: RADAR MINIMUN ALTITUDE DETECTION AT 25 MILES
Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 8:31 pm 
 
General
User avatar

Joined: Wed Feb 22, 2006 3:51 pm

Posts: 113

Hi!

You might have predicted the answer, "it depends"...

The minimum altitude will usually be determined by the ground reflection clutter, in the presence of sufficient transmitter power, antenna gain, and receiver noise figure, which you said were sufficient.

The ground clutter is determined by the antenna pattern and the anti-clutter filter behavior.

There's a really wide range of possibilities there!

Posted  11/12/2012