Theory and Measurements of Angle-of-Arrival of Diffraction-Limited Electromagnetic Wave Beams in the Turbulent Atmosphere

Abstract

Improvements in radar tracking performance based on the use of interferometric and distributed aperture radar systems, together with the need for command-guided weapons for cost reduction, have placed more stringent requirements on radar angular accuracy. The result of this upgraded accuracy requirement is that fluctuations in angle-of-arrival (AOA) due to small-scale atmospheric turbulence become significant in the error budgets of command-guided weapons systems. In this paper we present a theory of AOA variations based on the incorporation of diffraction-limited Gaussian beam propagation into a geometrical optics formulation of AOA. Measurements of AOA are compared to this theory with good agreement for this type of experiment.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 2004
Accession Number
ADA432524

Entities

People

  • E. J. Holder
  • J. C. Kerce
  • R. A. Smith
  • R. W. Mcmillan

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Agreements
  • Angle Of Arrival
  • Atmospheric Motion
  • Cost Reductions
  • Diffraction
  • Guided Weapons
  • Mathematics
  • Measurement
  • Millimeter Waves
  • Numbers
  • Optical Lattices
  • Quantum Electronics
  • Radar
  • Radar Tracking
  • Standards
  • Turbulence

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Atmospheric Science / Meteorology, specifically Wind Wave Turbulence.
  • Electromagnetic Wave Scattering and Antenna Radiation Engineering
  • Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Technology.