While investigating the feasibility of whether UWB radar technology can incorporate Doppler processing to estimate the velocity of a moving target when the platform is stationary, a 2013 ARL report highlighted issues related to target range migration. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) as a potential approach to Doppler processing due to its low average power, high resolution, and object-penetrating ability. Ultra-wideband waveforms have been investigated by the U.S. Basically, any target that is heading 90 degrees in relation to the antenna beam cannot be detected by its velocity (only by its conventional reflectivity). The classic zero doppler target is one which is on a heading that is tangential to the radar antenna beam. A target with no range-rate reflects a frequency near the transmitter frequency and cannot be detected. It describes the rate that a target moves toward or away from the radar. The advantage of combining Doppler processing with pulse radars is to provide accurate velocity information. That provides Look-down/shoot-down capability. With the advent of digital techniques, Pulse-Doppler radars (PD) became light enough for aircraft use, and Doppler processors for coherent pulse radars became more common. Early Doppler radars included CW, but these quickly led to the development of frequency modulated continuous wave ( FMCW) radar, which sweeps the transmitter frequency to encode and determine range.

This effectively eliminates false signals produced by trees, clouds, insects, birds, wind, and other environmental influences but various inexpensive hand held Doppler radar devices not using this may produce erroneous measurements.ĬW Doppler radar only provides a velocity output as the received signal from the target is compared in frequency with the original signal. Radars may be:ĭoppler allows the use of narrow band receiver filters that reduce or eliminate signals from slow moving and stationary objects. There are four ways of producing the Doppler effect. The result derived with c as the speed of light and v as the target radial velocity gives the shifted frequency ( f r Technology There is no need to invoke Albert Einstein's theory of special relativity, because all observations are made in the same frame of reference. The formula for radar Doppler shift is the same as that for reflection of light by a moving mirror. Frequency variation ĭoppler Effect: Change of wavelength and frequency caused by motion of the source. Thus, the relative difference in velocity between a source and an observer is what gives rise to the Doppler effect. Since with electromagnetic radiation like microwaves or with sound, frequency is inversely proportional to wavelength, the wavelength of the waves is also affected. If the pitcher moves at an angle, but at the same speed, the frequency variation at which the receiver catches balls is less, as the distance between the two changes more slowly.įrom the point of view of the pitcher, the frequency remains constant (whether he's throwing balls or transmitting microwaves). The catcher catches balls less frequently because of the pitcher's backward motion (the frequency decreases). The inverse is true if the pitcher is moving away from the catcher. However, if the pitcher is jogging towards the catcher, the catcher catches balls more frequently because the balls are less spaced out (the frequency increases). Assuming the balls travel at a constant velocity and the pitcher is stationary, the catcher catches one ball every second. Imagine a baseball pitcher throwing one ball every second to a catcher (a frequency of 1 ball per second). This variation of frequency also depends on the direction the wave source is moving with respect to the observer it is maximum when the source is moving directly toward or away from the observer and diminishes with increasing angle between the direction of motion and the direction of the waves, until when the source is moving at right angles to the observer, there is no shift. The received frequency is higher (compared to the emitted frequency) during the approach, it is identical at the instant of passing by, and it is lower during the recession. It is commonly heard when a vehicle sounding a siren approaches, passes and recedes from an observer. The Doppler effect (or Doppler shift), named after Austrian physicist Christian Doppler who proposed it in 1842, is the difference between the observed frequency and the emitted frequency of a wave for an observer moving relative to the source of the waves. This is only a component of the real speed (170 km/h). The emitted signal toward the car is reflected back with a variation of frequency that depend on the speed away/toward the radar (160 km/h).

Doppler weather radar in motion