How does Radar Work?

Radar has been used for decades in military settings and in weather tracking. This technology may be one of the most useful tools human beings have. In fact, we have enjoyed the benefits of radar for so long, in all parts of our lives, that we may be taking it for granted in the 21st century.

Using radar is a simple process but the development of this technology was anything but simple. In very basic terms, radar equipment is designed to let us know about location and movement of objects. The letters “R A D A R” stand for radio detection and ranging. In this sense it similar in technology to radio broadcasting. A radar system detects radio waves from other objects and is able to determine when the object/target changes its signal spectrum.

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An easy way to understand how radar works is to think about objects being a certain distance from the radar receiver/equipment. When this target sends a signal back to the receiver and then moves away the receiver picks up fewer indications of the object – called wave fronts – in a period of time. This change of frequency shows on the radar screen as read by the operator. Basically the radar equipment can tell the operator: there is an object/target within range of the receiver; and the object/target is a certain distance away.

What makes radar so effective? The equipment sends out a pulse, a burst of energy that takes a certain amount of time to travel to the target and return. This results in the information about location and distance, as described above. But radar can even provide some idea of size and orientation. Different types of material used in constructing target objects will send back slightly different signal types. Even certain land masses, groups of trees etc. can be identified by the best radar equipment and an experienced operator.

Working for Years

Radar in its most basic form has been used for more than 100 years. Credit for development of this technology goes to scientists and inventors in the U.K. The system was first used as a warning device so that operators could detect any object that was traveling toward the coast of the island (1930s). One specific use in the U.K. was detection of German planes.

These first technologists devised electrical equipment that reproduced what a person can do when standing near a large wall or other object. If you holler and your voice bounces off the wall or object you could measure the time it would take for the sound to get back to you. That is the operation of radar in its most basic terms. Over the next 70 years or so, men and women have fine-tuned and improved this very simple technology to make it amazingly accurate. Radar is still crucial to military operations, of course. But it is also a key tool for weather measurements and storm predictions. We are also quite familiar with this technology as used by law enforcement to measure vehicle speed!