Digital automatic radar data extraction equipment

This paper describes a method of extracting automatically the range and bearing of point source echoes in the video signals from a twodimensional radar (i.e. a radar scanning in range and bearing, or elevation, but not both), employing a digital ferrite core store for the necessary video storage. Attention is drawn to the flexibility of such a storage medium, together with a brief description of this type of store. A method by which the video signals can be quantized in range, bearing and amplitude, to render them suitable for digital storage is then described, together with a method of video condensation, to economize on the amount of storage capacity required. Consideration is then given to the criteria for the recognition of echoes in the stored video and for the determination of their centre of symmetry, together with examples of the type of circuit which will meet these criteria. Finally the precautions necessary to avoid the generation of false alarms due to meteorological clutter are examined and the method by which the range and bearing (or elevation) of the echoes recognized, may be generated in a suitable form for transmission to a radar data handling computer.