Module2.Principlesofwork,keyparametersofradiolocation.ppt

Noise The value of the MDS echo depends on the Signal-to-Noise-Ratio, defined as the ratio of the signal energy to the noise energy. All radars, as with all electronic equipment, must operate in the presence of noise. The main source of noise is termed thermal noise and is due to agitation of electrons caused by heat. The noise can arise from - received atmospheric or cosmic noise - receiver noise - generated internally in the radar receiver. The overall receiver sensitivity is directly related to the noise figure of the radar receiver. It becomes clear, that a low noise figure receiver is accomplished by a good design in the very front-end components. An aspect to a very low noise figure receiver is achieved through minimizing the noise factor of the very first block. This component usual is characterized by a low noise figure with high gain. This is the reason for the often used denomination, low noise preamplifier (LNA). False Alarm Rate A false alarm is “an erroneous radar target detection decision caused by noise or other interfering signals exceeding the detection threshold”. In general, it is an indication of the presence of a radar target when there is no valid target. The False Alarm Rate (FAR) is calculated using the following formula:  FAR= false targets per PRT /number of range cells False alarms are generated when thermal noise exceeds a pre-set threshold level, by the presence of spurious signals (either internal to the radar receiver or from sources external to the radar), or by equipment malfunction. A false alarm may be manifested as a momentary blip on a cathode ray tube (CRT) display, a digital signal processor output, an audio signal, or by all of these means. If the detection threshold is set too high, there will be very few false alarms, but the signal-to-noise ratio required will inhibit detection of valid targets. If the threshold is set too low, the large nu