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ATI's Fundamentals of Radar Technology course
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Summary:
A three-day course covering the basics of radar, taught in a manner for true understanding of the fundamentals, even for the complete newcomer. Covered are electromagnetic waves, frequency bands, the natural phenomena of scattering and propagation, radar performance calculations and other tools used in radar work, and a "walk through" the four principal subsystems - the transmitter, the antenna, the receiver and signal processor, and the control and interface apparatus - covering in each the underlying principle and componentry. A few simple exercises reinforce the student's understanding. Both surface-based and airborne radars are addressed.
Tuition:
Instructor:
Dr. Menachem Levitas received his BS, maxima cum laude, from the University of Portland and his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 1975, both in physics. He has forty one years experience in science and engineering, thirty three of which in radar systems analysis, design, development, and testing for the Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and FAA. His experience encompasses many ground based, shipboard, and airborne radar systems. He has been technical lead on many radar efforts including Government source selection teams. He is the author of multiple radar based innovations and is a recipient of the Aegis Excellence Award for his contribution toward the AN/SPY-1 high range resolution (HRR) development. For many years, prior to his retirement in 2011, he had been the chief scientist of Technology Service Corporation / Washington. He continues to provide radar technical support under consulting agreements.
Contact this instructor (please mention course name in the subject line)
Course Outline:
First Morning - Introduction
- The basic nature of radar and its applications, military and civil
- Radiative physics (an exercise); the radar range equation; the statistical nature of detection
- Electromagnetic waves, constituent fields and vector representation
- Radar "timing", general nature, block diagrams, typical characteristics
First Afternoon - Natural Phenomena: Scattering and Propagation
- Scattering: Rayleigh point scattering; target fluctuation models; the nature of clutter
- Propagation: Earth surface multipath; atmospheric refraction and "ducting"; atmospheric attenuation
- Other tools: the decibel, etc. (a dB exercise)
Second Morning - Workshop
- An example radar and performance calculations, with variations
Second Afternoon - Introduction to the Subsystems
- Overview: the role, general nature and challenges of each
- The Transmitter, basics of power conversion: power supplies, modulators, rf devices (tubes, solid state)
- The Antenna: basic principle; microwave optics and pattern formation, weighting, sidelobe concerns, sum and difference patterns; introduction to phased arrays
Third Morning - Subsytems Continued: The Receiver and Signal Processor
- Receiver: preamplification, conversion, heterodyne operation "image" frequencies and double conversion
- Signal processing: pulse compression
- Signal processing: Doppler-sensitive processing
- Airborne radar - the absolute necessity of Doppler processing
Third Afternoon - Subsystems: Control and Interface Apparatus
- Automatic detection and constant-false-alarm-rate (CFAR) techniques of threshold control
- Automatic tracking: exponential track filters
- Multi-radar fusion, briefly
- Course review, discussion, current topics and community activity
The course is taught from the student notebook supplied, based heavily on the open literature and with adequate references to the most popular of the many textbooks now available. The student's own note-taking and participation in the exercises will enhance understanding as well.
Tuition:
Tuition for this three-day course is $1740 per person at one of our scheduled public courses. Onsite pricing is available. Please call us at 410-956-8805 or send an email to ati@aticourses.com.
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