Maximum Angular Accuracy of a Pulsed Search Radar

An investigation is made of the limits imposed by receiver noise on the accuracy with which the angular position of a target can be determined by a pulsed search radar. Using a result in the theory of statistical estimation, a lower bound is derived for the standard deviation of regular unbiased estimates of target angular position, for a large class of methods of angular position determination; the lower bound depends on scan rate, pulse repetition rate, beamwidth, beam shape, and signal-to-noise ratio. A similar analysis is made of the limits on angular accuracy imposed by a combination of receiver noise and one particular type of target cross section fluctuation. Operations which can be performed on the received signal to form an estimate of target angular position, the standard deviation of which approximately attains the theoretical lower bound, are discussed. The relation between the estimation of angular position and the problem of target detection is discussed. A graphical presentation of the main results is given.