Surface-wave radar and its application

Following a brief review of the problem of detecting drug-carrying aircraft approaching the United States from South America, a short description is given of over-the-horizon radar that makes use of radar pulses reflected from the ionosphere. An alternative, surface-wave radar, is then described beginning with the complete formulas for the electric field transmitted by a vertical dipole erected on the surface of the sea. The backscattered field of a small airplane and of a boat are calculated and the fields received by the array determined. Arrays of vertical dipoles are then described for sending radar pulses along the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.