Application of electronic sector scanning techniques to height-finding radar systems

This paper considers the application of electronic scanning in the vertical plane to provide additional height information for surveillance radar systems. It is shown that, if the electronic scanning rate is made equal to the reciprocal of the pulse duration, this can result in the production of a 3-dimensional radar with a high data rate and several useful facilities for air-traffic surveillance. These include: slant-range correction, reduction of zenithal gap, individual aircraft height extraction and height-layering facilities. Consideration is also given to a technique of multiplicative signal processing which can provide increased height accuracy for very little additional equipment. A proposed scheme for such a radar is put forward using techniques which have already received some experimental study, and the scheme is compared briefly with stacked-beam radar systems. The proposed radar appears to possess most of the facilities of the stacked-beam radars, together with improved height-layering facilities and a high reliability.