Radar

The device
The term RADAR was coined in 1940 by the United States Navy as an acronym for RAdio Detection And Ranging Radar locates and range finds and object by shining radio waves or microwaves on to it to and the recording the amount of reflected radiation determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of object such as aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, ICBMs and terrain. The radar dish (or antenna) is the item tat transmits the pulses of radio waves or microwaves and is mostly on top of a tower or in a Radome on a fixed land instillation like at a airport.

Uses
Radar uses include air traffic control, NASA Deep Space Network (DSN), continuous-wave, pulsed, single-polarization, dual-polarization, synthetic aperture radar, and phased arrays. X band radar frequency sub-bands are used in civil, military, and government institutions for weather monitoring, air traffic control, maritime vessel traffic control, defence tracking, vehicle speed detection for law enforcement, en route radar radar astronomy, air-defence systems, antimissile systems; marine radars to locate landmarks and other ships; aircraft anti-collision systems; ocean surveillance systems, outer space surveillance and rendezvous systems; meteorological precipitation monitoring; altimeter and flight control systems, guided missile target locating systems; and ground-penetrating radar for geological observations. Modern high-tech radar systems are associated with digital signal processing and are capable of extracting useful information from very high noise levels. Several police forces use radar guns to monitor vehicle speeds on the roads. Marine navigation radars often operate with "I-band" frequencies.

Airborne radar
The airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) system airborne radar picket system and the Blue Vixen Radar navigation radar are examples of this.

The airborne early warning and control and intelligence gathering radars are different to navigation radar because they can detect and impart identify hostile forces' ships and air craft rather than just warn of near by storms and mountains.

Stereotypes
They are generality portrayed as dishes and rods that spin, rotate, bounce and jolt about. Some of the older models like the UK's WW2 Chain Home system were more like large radio transmission and reception masts. Some are hidden in the white or grey radome buildings informally called 'Golf Balls' or in smaller radome domes on installations, aircraft, trucks and ships. Modern phased array radars are a immobile roughly pyramidal building with flat sensors stuck to the exterior walls. Radomes can also cover communications and communications interception equipment as well.

Jamming
.

The Soviet come Russian and Ukrainian WarPac Ground Based ECM Systems are mobile vehicle moved radio and radar jammers. The Kvant SPN-2,3,4 Heart Ache family of mobile jammers are designed to deny surveillance using radars in the 2 to 4 centimetre/ 6.0 to 10.2GHz wavelength bands

Also see

 * 1) Blue Vixen Radar
 * 2) Ferranti Blue Fox Radar
 * 3) RAF Fylingdales
 * 4) The DEW Line
 * 5) Electromagnetic spectrum
 * 6) AN/FPS-108 Cobra Dane radar
 * 7) Thule Air Base, Greenland
 * 8) AEW&C
 * 9) Boeing RC-135 Cobra Ball
 * 10) Cold War radio jamming
 * 11) XTAR
 * 12) P-18 radar
 * 13) P-12 radar