Radar technology has become extremely important in today’s world.
Radar helps guide the freighters which ship the electronics, clothing, and countless other products we use every day to our shores.
Radar is essential in commercial aviation. The primary radar typically consists of a large rotating parabolic antenna dish that sweeps a vertical fan-shaped beam of microwaves around the airspace surrounding the airport. It detects the position and range of aircraft by microwaves reflected back to the antenna from the aircraft’s surface.
Radar is an especially important tool for the U.S. Department of Defense as it is used to detect aircrafts, vehicles and missiles. Sonar is a very common technique used in submarines and other underwater vessels. It uses sound propagation to detect objects in the water. This is done by emitting sound pulses and listening for echoes.
With climate change issues, weather radar has also emerged as a critical technology. Weather radar is a vital instrument for observing the atmosphere to help provide weather forecasts and issue weather warnings to the public.
One trend in radar technology to watch for is called 3D radar systems. Many companies and military organizations globally are investing in 3D radar systems to increase the performance and efficiency of weather monitoring, military and surveillance systems.
In a 3D radar system, measurements of all three space coordinates are made within a radar system. 3D radars have pencil beams which are rotated for scanning purposes. After each scanning rotation, the antenna elevation is shifted to the next sound. This process is further repeated on many angles to scan the entire volume of air around the radar within its maximum range.
3D radars are now replacing 2D radars mostly in the defense and meteorological industries.
Many prominent technology growth sectors rely upon solid-state radar and new methods of fabrication and programming.
These sectors include autonomous vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and various commercial/civilian applications.
Experts in this area believe this resurgence is a byproduct of escalating advancements in radar, stealth and jamming technologies for defense that is driving conventional radar solutions into obsolescence. A wide accessibility to sophisticated digital-signal processing (DSP), agile RF transceivers and cutting-edge antenna techniques is fueling this accelerating change.
A contributing factor to enhanced capabilities and decreased costs is the development of new antenna and radar fabrication technologies such as GaN power transistors, low noise amplifiers (LNA) and active electronically steered array (AESA) antennas have been central to recent radar and radar jammer military contract awards and system deployments around the globe.
It’s now commonly agreed that radars employing these technologies outperform conventional radar systems and have spurred a flood of new and innovative radar design and fabrication approaches.
RADAR Training Courses by Tonex
Radar technology is evolving.
IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization for the advancement of technology, reports advances in signal processing for radar systems involving a wide range of applications, including healthcare, archeology and weather forecasting, to mention a few.
In order to stay current in radar technology, Tonex offers several courses featuring radar trends you need to know.
For example, our Fundamentals of RADAR and LiDAR systems focuses on both their similarities and differences. Automotive manufacturers are increasingly integrating LiDAR (Light detection and ranging) sensors in automotive radars to collect the data faster with high accuracy. LiDAR uses pulsed laser light to illuminate target and reflect the pulses with sensor and the differences in laser return times and wavelengths are used to make 3D representations of the target.
Another popular course, Phased-Array Radar Systems Engineering Bootcamp, is a 3-day training program covering phased array radar principles, latest technological developments, software, system analysis, requirements, architecture, design and operation. Examine major subsystems and associated technologies with specialists in those areas.
Phased array feeds are also now being used at the focus of radio telescopes to provide many beams, giving the radio telescope a very wide field of view.
Phased array technology will also soon be applied to low Earth orbit satellite constellations designed to provide broadband internet connectivity to consumers; the user terminals of the system will use phased array antennas.
Also learn about passive radars and Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) technology.
Passive radars use existing electromagnetic signals from the atmosphere to support imaging and tracking capabilities compared to the regular/active radar that sends out electromagnetic signals to the target and receives reflected signals from the target. Passive radars use ambient radio signals for tracking and surveillance and are less expensive to operate.
Active electronically Scanned Array (AESA) has controlled array antennas in which the beam of radio waves can be electronically steered to point in different directions without moving the antenna. New AESA technologies have enabled an evolution to higher (millimeter wave) frequencies providing greater resolution with smaller phased-array antennas.
Then there’s Radar Communications Training, a 2-day course that offers insightful information for individuals and organizations with its in-depth coverage of important aspects of radar communications systems including engineering and operations.
Besides featuring cutting edge training in radar technology, we also customize courses to better fit the needs of individuals and groups.
Why Tonex?
For almost three decades Tonex has been specializing in courses and seminars that stress cutting edge training in the most relevant technology-based topics of our time.
Tonex instructors are the best in the world. Not only are they specialists in their fields, they also have real world experience that goes a long way in providing participants with not only theory but also practical information to help with careers and goal objectives.
For more information, questions, comments, contact us.