EE-416:

Radar Pulse Compression, SSJ and

Operations…..

Module-4
Dr Sharif Iqbal Sheikh, Associate Professor in EE.
Tel: 0138602818, Office: #59-1075
Section 3.6: Radar equation with Pulse Compression
• The average transmitted power of a given radar can be raised by
increasing the pulse length () of the transmitted energy.
• But with a undesirable effect of reducing the radar range
resolution.
• Pulse compression (PC) allows a radar to use a long pulse to
achieve high radiated energy and simultaneously acceptable range
resolution
• PC uses frequency/phase modulation to widen signal bandwidth
• It is mostly adopted when the peak power required of a short-
pulse radar cannot be achieved with practice transmitter.
Pulse Compression using CHRIP
• For a chirp waveform that sweeps over a frequency range F1 to F2 in a
time period T, the nominal bandwidth of the pulse is B, where B = F2 –
F1, and the pulse has a time-bandwidth product of T×B.
• Following pulse compression, a narrow pulse of duration τ is obtained,
where τ ≈ 1/B, together with a peak voltage amplification of √T×B.
Section 3.7.1: Radar equation with ECM/Jamming
• For uncompressed n number pulses, the SNR was previously
derived as;

• For compressed pulse with pulse-width c & bandwidth B=1/c ;

• SNR of the entire pulse is the coherent summation of the number of c ;

➔ CR.c = 
 = 1/(B/CR)
Example: Radar equation with Pulse Compression
A PRF radar operating at 10.5 GHz transmits a peak power of Pt = 10
kW to detect a target with RCS of 2.0 m2 at a distance of 100 km. The
radar has the following specifications: pulse width  = 1.2 s, CR = 2,
PRF fr = 250,000 pps, antenna gain G = 35 dB, system losses L = 10
dB, noise figure F = 5 dB, dwell interval Ti = 2 s. Find the single pulse
S/N. (Note: n=Ti.fr and K=1.3806x10-23 m2.kg.s-2.k-1 or Joules/Kelvin)
Review of Low PRF Pulsed RADAR with noise (from module 2):
-A pulse radar transmits and receives a train of pulses with width τ & period T
- The transmit and receive duty factors dt and dr can be written as

and
assumed

- Thus, for a single pulse, radar equation

for output SNR of the RADAR is given by:
- If ‘n’ number of pulses strike the
target, the total SNR can be written as:
- For target illumination time (Ti) , ‘n’ can be expressed as:
- ts is scan duration or radar frame time
-  is solid angle of the antenna
- For B=1/τ of radar receiver matched filter
Section 3.7: Radar equation with ECM/Jamming
• Electronically interfering (disrupting, and deceiving) with radars operation
is called ECM (Electronic Counter measure) or jamming.
• Noise can be considered as an effective countermeasure.
• So Jamming using noise can be: barrage and repeater jamming.
• A barrage jammer attempts to increase the noise level across the radar
operating bandwidth, and lowers the receiver SNR making it difficult to
detect the
• It is difficult to keep the noise out of the Radar when the jammer is located
in the radar main beam. If the noise is illuminated by the antenna
sidelobes, the entire display can be obliterated masking the target.
• In general, radars operating at a higher frequency are less vulnerable to
jamming, since power is needed to be distributed over a larger bandwidth.
Section 3.7.1: Radar equation with ECM/jamming
• A repeater jammer identifies the echo signal and retransmits with delay
to generate false targets.
• Typically, the repeater jamming is easier to counter than a noise jamming
• Note that It is really difficult to design a repeater jammer that will mimic
the exact radar echo signal.

Self-protection or Self-Screening Jamming (SSJ) is a type of barrage jamming

• SSJ device is the ECM that is mostly placed on or very close to the Target.
• Escort jamming is a similar technique, where the vehicle carrying the
jammer remains close to the target it is protecting.
• In both cases, distance from Radar to target and jammer is approximately
same and the jammer outputs constant Power.
Section 3.7.1: Self-Screening Jamming (SSJ)
• Received power of the echo signal from a single hit on a target is rewritten:

where, the receiver loss is L

• But the one-way received power originated from Jammer is given by:

Where receiver area:

• where ‘j’ subscript is for Jammer. ,

• Br is the BW of Radar receiver filter and (Br / Bj ) < 1 as any jammers
should work against a wide variety of radar systems with different BW
Section 3.7.1: Self-Screening Jamming (SSJ)
• Thus echo-signal to jamming- signal
ratio received by the Radar is given by:
Note: S/Sssj  S/N ➔as Sssj is like noise to RADAR
• After propagating a certain distance, it is observed that the echo-signal and
jamming-signal become equal. This range is called cross-over range (Rco):

; Derived By assigning (S/Sssj) =1 ➔ S=Sssj

• The range at which (S/Sssj) is sufficient for target detection is detection range:

Note: S/Sssj  S/N ➔ So Max. Detectable Range

Example 3.6: Self-Screening Jamming (SSJ)
• A radar transmits a peak power of 60 kW with an antenna having a gain of 50 dB
and pulse width of 2 μs is subject to interference by a self-screening jammer.
Assume the following specifications: radar losses L = 5 dB, jammer power Pj = 200
W, and jammer antenna gain in the direction radar Gj = 10 dB, jammer bandwidth
Bj = 50 MHz, and jammer loss Lj = 0 dB. Find (a) the crossover range for a 10-m2
target; (b) the detection range if needed SNR for detection is 20 dB
Exercises (BB assignment 12):
Exercises (BB assignment 12):
Exercises (BB assignment 12):
Exercises (BB assignment 12): Stand-off jamming (SOJ) power G’
A jammer that operates outside the range of normal defenses is known as a stand-off jammer
Chapter 4: Identifying Radar Cross-sections (RCS)
• RCS defines the scattering efficiency of a target ➔ Important for Target design
• Knowledge of the RCS is essential in the calculations of radar-range and SNR.
• RCS is defined as an equivalent cross section of the target producing the same
amount of reflection to radar, as would be produced by an isotropic radiator.

Note in free space Er  Ei

Table 4: Perfectly conducting sphere is considered as the simplest target for RCS calculations.
Nonspecular reflects echo evenly in the surrounding
4.2.1: RCS of a Sphere (Peremeter << wavelength)

• A sphere with radius ‘r=a’ has three distinct regions of RCS:

• The Rayleigh region, defined by (2a / ) 1, where the RCS is given by:
(For small sphere compared to )

• The Mie resonance, region defined by 1 < (2a / )  10.

• The high-frequency limit, defined by (2a / ) > 10, where RCS is given by;

Radius r = a
RCS of a Cylinder and Planar-surface
• RCS of a cylinder with radius ‘a’ and length ‘L’ is given by;
• A large smooth Planar surface reflects most of the EM energy, assuming
normal incidence from the radar, back in the perpendicular direction with a
gain related to the aperture A. Its RCS is given by :

• RCS of a squire flat planar surface e with oblique incidence  respect to the
range vector;
, where a is the length of the side.

• Example 4.2 of text book: Consider a calibration target of a right circular

cylinder such that its broadside (cylinder) and end (flat plate) RCS are both 1.0
m2 at 10 GHz. Find the length and diameter of the cylinder.
Solution:
step-1: find the area using equation:
step-2: find the Diameter from area using equation: A=.r2 =.(D/2)2
step-3: Use cylinder RCS equation to find Length.
 RCS of Corner Reflectors: often used for Radar calibration
• RCS of a corner reflectors supports large echo's due to multiple reflections.
• Has large RCS and reflects EM energy over a wide range of aspect angles.
• Practically this occurs from intersection of a wing and fuselage of an aircraft

Note RCS to fluctuate due to changes in target aspect-angle or frequency and polarization.
Often ‘Swerling’ probabilistic models are used to predict the fluctuating cross section of targets
RCS of a Complex object: i.e. aircrafts, ships, and missiles
- Complex shape RCS is predicted using ‘RCS
of constituent simple shapes’ or ‘elaborate
computer simulation’
- Thus, RCS expression can be given by

where, σn is the RCS of the n-th scatterer,

and Rn is the distance between the n-th
scatterer and the receiver.
The 4.5G F/A-18 Hornet (wingspan is 40 feet &
length is 56 feet), Russian SU-34/35 and Chinese
J20 fighter jets have an RCS of 1m2. The 5G F-35 has
an RCS of 0.005m2, about the size of a golf ball…
Exercises:
Section 4..4.1: Radar Clutter or unwanted echo
• A Radar Clutter is defined as the return echo from a physical object
or a group of objects that is undesired for the Radar
• Type of Clutter that Radar performance:
• Surface clutter: From geographical land are mostly stationary. But
the effect of wind on trees/see-water (waves) can introduce Doppler
shift (typically used to removing clatter during signal processing)
• Volume clutter: From Chaff or Weather (rain/dust/show) that
produce clatter with similar characteristics of that of the aircraft.
(Note: Chaff consists of aluminum-coated glass fibers ranging in lengths from
0.8 to 0.75 cm and is released in packets of 0.5 to 100 million fibers)
• Point clutter: From Birds, windmills, and individual tall buildings are
typical point clutter
Section 4..4.1: Surface Clutter
• Surface clutter is a echo signal from approximately planner surface with area
exceeding the radar resolution cell.
• The received power from clutter Sc with clutter area Ac is given by;

where, az= azimuth 3-dB beamwidth, R=slant range, g=

grazing angle,  = pulse width, 0 or 0 represents RCS or
normalized clutter reflectivity per unit area illuminated
• If the returned signal from target:

• Thus the signal-to-clutter ratio (SCR) is:

Section 4..4.1: Other Clutter
• Land Clutter: can be natural and man-made structures. Mean value of
the surface clutter using constant -model:
where,

• where, is the parameter describing the scattering effectiveness of the

clutter, S is the RCS of the clutter area AC, and the symbol °
represents the clutter scattering parameter, or normalized clutter
reflectivity, per unit area illuminated.
• See Clutter: suffers from temporal (time) and spatial (space) variations,
and is largely dependent on sea state, average wave height, peak wave
height, wind speed, frequency, polarization, radar look direction
relative to wave direction, and grazing angle
Exercise:
Section 4.4.3: Point Clutter
• Although the radar cross section of a single bird is small, the birds that
travel in flocks may produce a significantly large total cross section.
• Birds flying v = 90 km/hour are usually difficult to be rejected by Radar

8- 12 GHz
2 - 4 GHz
0.3- 3 GHz

• 4.5: Clutter statistical distributions are used for Radar clutter, like,
Rayleigh/Log-normal/K distributions
• 4.6: Clutter-spectrum can be used to detect Doppler frequency spread
of non-stationary clutter (due to wind induced motion…)
Section 4.7: RADAR Receiver Noise https://www.google.com/search?q=flicker+noise&rlz=1C1CAFC_enSA939SA939&oq=Flicker+noise&aqs=chrome.
0.0i512l10.935j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&bshm=bshqp/1#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:f91fa8c0,vid:rheyRSnn9hc

• RADAR sensitivity is limited by receiver noise, as its threshold should

be below which desired target echo’s are lost or obscured.
• Noise temperature is the level of available noise power introduced by
a components or sources in RADAR system. Common types of noises:
• Thermal noise or Johnson noise or White noise: is a electronic noise
generated by the thermal agitation of the electrons inside an
electrical conductor at equilibrium
• Shot noise consists of random fluctuations of DC biasing current
• Flicker noise is a electronic noise with a 1/f power spectral density
• Unlike thermal and shot noise, flicker noise decreases with frequency
• Main problem is the receiver noise cannot be separated from returned
echo signals, the they are also amplified along with the desired signal
Section 4.7.1: NOISE Factor(F)/Figure(NF) AND Effective Noise Temperature
• In room temp T0=290K , NF= 1 (ideal). (F is in Power ratio, NF is in Decibel)
(greater than unity)

• Thus, Amp noise output (N0)

eff. Noise Temp.:

Noise factor: See Pg 67

Section 4.7.1: NOISE FACTOR AND Effective Noise Temperature
Section 4.8: RADAR System Losses
• The accumulated losses in every stage of radar is called system losses.
• The losses reduce the SNR at the receiver output.
• Common losses are mainly due to Cable, atmospheric attenuation… and
can be classified into three catagories:
• Design Losses: (only a few are shown here)
(a) Plumbing loss: There are always some small power losses that occur
in the transmission line, waveguides, and duplexers connecting output
of the transmitter to the antenna ➔ covered in earlier modules.
(b) Antenna beam-shape loss: mainly depends on target passing through
the center of the beam or not and affects antenna gain (G).
(c) Radom loss: Radar-dome is a protective dielectric enclosure for
protection introduces a two-way loss based on the operating
frequency, Radome-material and Radome-thickness.
Section 4.8: System Losses
• Operational Losses:
(a) Operator loss: if operator is distracted, overloaded, or not well-trained
(b) Field degradation: Due to lack of proper monitoring, calibration
(maintenance) of the Radar.
• Propagation Losses: Nearly 1/3 of all losses ➔ covered in earlier modules
(a) Attenuation loss: Increases with increasing operating frequency.
Although attenuation of radar waves in the normal/clear atmosphere
is negligible but absorption and scattering increases due to presence
of suspended particles in air, such as dust and water drops, which
condense in fog and rain. A radar wave passing through an ionized
layer of the atmosphere also results in attenuation, which is primarily
due to the absorption of signal energy when the vibrating electrons
collide with each other.
Section 4.8: System Losses
• Propagation Losses: continued
(a) Reflection loss: Radar echo signals propagating though direct and indirect
(reflection from GND…) path can combine destructively to produce nulls.
(b) Refraction Loss: Radar signals propagate through different layers of media
with different dielectric constant. So they tend to bend resulting in error in
estimating range and elevation angle.
Exercise 4.11: solution