INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY DELHI

Doppler Effect and Its

Applications
(Report)

Submitted by:
Bhumika Kansal
Msc Physics
1st year
2015PHS7116

2015

Department of Physics

Submitted to:
Dr.Sujjin Babu

CLASSICAL MECHANICS

Contents
Doppler effect
1. Classical Doppler effect
2. Relativistic Doppler effect (special theory)

Doppler radar
Applications of Doppler Effects
1. Weather forecasting
2. In Astronomy
3. In GPS velocity determination
4. Medical ultrasonography

Doppler Effect
The Doppler Effect was named after Christian Doppler, who first
came up with the idea in 1842. He thought that sound waves
would have a higher frequency if the source was moving toward
the observer and a lower frequency if the source was moving away
from the observer
The Doppler Effect is the phenomenon observed whenever the
source of wave is moving with respect to an observer.
The Doppler Effect can be described as the effect produced by a
moving source of wave:
An apparent upward shift in frequency for the observer and
the source are approaching
The downward shift in frequency when the observer and the
source are receding.

Downward shift
in frequency

Upward shift in
frequency

1. Classical Doppler shift

The Doppler Effect in the case of waves in a material medium will be
called the "classical Doppler effect". We shall assume that all
velocities are much less than the speed of light, so that relativistic
considerations do not enter.
Consider an example of Doppler shift in sound- a situation we can
treat classically.

Relative motion of the source:v

Observer
Source

v- Velocity of source wrt observer.

w- Velocity of sound waves travels through a medium, such as air,
this is determined by the properties of the medium and
independent of the motion of the source.
L- Distance between the two consecutive sound waves.
We can regard the sound as a regular series of pulse separated by time,
1
t =
where n is the no. of pulses per second generated by the source.
o

no

In time T, the sound travels a distance wT and if the pulses are

separated by L, the no. reaching the observer is wT/L .
Then the frequency of the sound heard by the observer isn d .
w
nd =
L

To determine L, consider a pulse

emitted at t=0 and the next
Pulse emitted at t=t o

wt o
nt o

duringt o , first pulse travels w t o

Distance and the source travels
nt Distance.

The distance between the pulses is

L= w t o -nt o = (w-n ) 1
n

n d =n o

n d =n o

w
w-v

1
1-

v
w

since, t o = n
o

Since, n d =

w
L

(Moving Source)

Similarly,
v

n d = n o 1 +
w

(Moving observer)

2. Relativistic Doppler shift

1
t
=
A light source flashes with period o n in its rest frame. The source is
o

moving toward an observer with velocity, v. Due to time dilation, the

period in the observers rest frame is

t = gt o

Since the speed of light is universal constant, the pulses arrive at the
observer with speed c. It is for this reason that the relative velocity
alone plays a role in the Doppler Effect for light. In the classical case,
the pulses arrive with a speed dependent on the state of motion of the
observer relative to the medium.

Observer

Source

The frequency of the pulses is, n d =

Since

c
L

L= c t -nt = (w-n ) gt o
nd =no

1
v
1 - gt o
c

v2
Since g = 1 - c2

n d =n o

v2
1- 2
c
v
1c

This reduces to

n d =n o

v
c
v
1c

1+

n d is the frequency in the observers rest frame

is the relative speed of source and observer.

As we expect, there is no mention of motion relative to a medium. The

relativistic result plays no favorites with the classical results; it disagrees
with both and, in fact, turns out to be their geometric mean.

Red
Shift

Blue
Shift

The Doppler effect for an Observer off the line of motion :

In this case the velocity ,v component which is along the line of motion
is to be considered. Then the equation will be

nd

v2
1- 2
c
=no
v cos q
1c

For the Transverse Doppler shift when

nd =no

is 90 then

v2
1- 2
c

This transverse Doppler Effect is due to time dilation.

Doppler Radar
Radar that can determine the frequency shift through measurement of
the phase change that occurs in electromagnetic waves during a series of
pulses. It stands for Radio Detection And Ranging. Radar is any
system that sends out radio waves, which reflect off surfaces and return
to be detected by the same device.
The Electric field of a transmitted wave

Er (t ) = E1 cos ( 2p ft (t + Dt ) + j1 )

The Electric field of a received wave

The time it took to travel

Dt =

2r
c

Et (t ) = E0 cos ( 2p ft t + j0 )

Substituting

2r

Et ( t ) = E1 cos 2p ft t +
+
j
1

The received frequency can be determined by taking the time derivative

of the quantity in parenthesis :
fr =

2 ft dr
2 ft vr
1 d

2r
2
p
f
t
+
+
j
=
f
+
=
f
+
= ft + f d
t
t
1 t
2p dt
c
c
dt
c

2v
f r = ft 1 +
c

How Radar works :

Simply put, radar exploits the phenomenon of electromagnetic wave reflection
to characterize a target environment. A basic radar system, shown below,
consists of a transmitting source, a switch/circulator, an antenna, and a
receiving/processing unit with some kind of display.

The transmitter generates the high-frequency radar signal. The radar signal
passes through a special type of connector, called a switch or, more commonly, a
circulator, to the antenna, where the signal radiates outward in a beam whose
shape is defined by the geometry of the antenna. The waves reflected off targets
make their way back to the antenna, where they are picked up and converted
into an electrical signal. The circulator is a device which allows signals to be sent
in only one direction. It prevents the transmitted signal from making its way into
the receiver at the receiving port, and it prevents the received signal from
entering back into the transmitter. This ensures minimal conducted interference
between the transmitting and receiving stages. The receiving unit stores the
received signal in memory, calculates the desired information from differences
between the transmitted and received signals, and displays the information in a
preferred format.

Applications for Doppler Effect

Doppler Radar is the main tool to determine Doppler shift in every field.
Despite its military heritage, radar has found in many applications of the civilian
world. Meteorologists use Doppler radar to detect the motion of precipitation in
the atmosphere; automotive manufacturers include radar units on their vehicles
to detect objects in the path of a vehicle in reverse; members of law enforcement
use radar guns to catch speeding motorists, and baseball scouts use similar radar
guns to measure the velocity of pitches; air traffic controllers use radar to track
activity in the airspace of their jurisdiction the list goes on.

1.Weather Forecasting :
Doppler radar makes use of the Doppler effect to determine the velocity of a
target. There is a variant of Doppler radar, called pulse-Doppler radar, which
is used to obtain both target velocity and target range data. This radar can
detect very fast-moving objects at long distances. By measuring the shift in
phase between a transmitted pulse and a received echo, the target's radial
velocity (the movement of the target directly toward or away from the radar)
can be calculated. A positive phase shift implies motion toward the radar and
a negative shift suggests motion away from the radar.

Radar consists of a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter emits pulses of

radio waves outward in a circular pattern. Precipitation scatters these radio
waves, sending some energy back to the transmitting point where it is detected
by the radars receiver.
The intensity of this received signal, called the radar echo, indicates the intensity
of the precipitation. Measuring the time it takes for the radio wave to leave the
radar and return tells us how far away the storm is. The direction the radar is
pointing locates the storm.
Uniquely, Doppler radar can measure the velocity of precipitation particles (and
thus, the wind) in precipitating regions. A Doppler radar receiver hears waves
of a higher frequency if precipitation particles are moving toward the radar and a
lower frequency if particles are moving away. This allows Doppler radars to
identify the detailed wind structure within severe thunderstorms. For example,
if particles switch from moving toward and then away from the Doppler radar
over a small distance, then a tornado is possible.
The National Weather Service is currently replacing its older radars with dualpolarization radars to improve observations of the interior of storm systems. A
radio wave is an electromagnetic wave and therefore has electric and magnetic
fields that are oriented perpendicular to one another. The orientation of these
oscillations is referred to as polarization.
A polarizing filter for a camera, or polarizing sunglasses, can be used to observe
the effects of polarization of light in a cloud-free sky. Rotate the filter, or glasses,
while looking through them at a portion of the sky away from the sun at a
certain orientation, the intensity of the sky-light will be reduced. The filter is
removing polarized light that is not aligned with the filter.
The additional information on polarization improves the precipitation rate
measurement as well as the determining of the type of precipitation (snow, rain,
freezing rain and possibly hail). The polarization radars can also measure
information about both the horizontal and vertical dimensions of precipitation
sized particles.

Radar images:
Velocity images: One of the best features on the 88d Doppler radar is its
ability to detect motion. However, the only motion it can "see" is either directly
toward or away from the radar. This is called radial velocity as it is the component
of the target's motion that is along the direction of the radar beam.
In all velocity images, red colors indicate wind moving away from the
radar with green colors representing wind moving toward the radar.

Precipitation Images : One-hour Precipitation is an image of

estimated one-hour precipitation accumulation. It is used to assess rainfall
intensities for flash flood warnings, urban flood statements and special weather
statements. Storm Total Precipitation image is of estimated accumulated
rainfall, continuously updated, since the last one-hour break in precipitation.
This product is used to locate flood potential over urban or rural areas, estimate
total basin runoff and provide rainfall accumulations for the duration of the
event.

2. Astronomy :
The Doppler Effect for electromagnetic wave such as light is of great use in
astronomy and results in either a so-called redshift or blueshift. It has been used
to measure the speed at which stars and galaxies are approaching or receding
from us; that is, their radial velocities. This may be used to detect if an
apparently single star is, in reality, a close binary, to measure the rotational
speed of stars and galaxies, or to detect exoplanets. Astronomers rely on the
Doppler effect to detect planets outside of our solar system, or exoplanets. To
date, 442 of the 473 known exoplanets have been detected using the Doppler
effect, which also helps planetary scientists glean details about the newly found
planets.
To observe the so-called red shifts and blue shifts over time, planetary scientists
use a high-resolution prism-like instrument known as a spectrograph that
separates incoming light waves into different colors. In every stars outer layer,
there are atoms that absorb light at specific wavelengths, and this absorption
appears as dark lines in the different colors of the stars spectrum that are
recorded from the light emanating from the star. Researchers use the shifts in
these lines as convenient markers by which to measure the size of the Doppler
shift.
For a so-called red shift, the
lines move toward the red end
of the spectrum (as displayed in
the middle row), and for a blue
shift, the lines move toward the
blue end(in end row)

The spectral lines of nearly all of the galaxies in the universe are shifted to the
red end of the spectrum. This means that the galaxies are moving away from the
Milky Way galaxy and is evidence for the expansion of the universe.

If there is a planet or companion

star in the system, the gravitational
pull of this unseen body or star will
perturb the host stars movement
at certain parts of its orbit,
producing a noticeable change in
the overall pattern and size of
Doppler shifts over time.

51 Pegasi b
51 Pegasi b was one of the first exoplanets to be discovered, in 1995. It was
found using the Doppler method. It is the only planet known to be orbiting its
star, 51 Pegasi. The star is a Sun-like star. It is about 51 light years from earth in
the constellation Pegasus.
As a planet orbits its star, gravitational forces pull the objects towards each
other. As the planet orbits the star, the star also moves in a smaller orbit around
the centre of mass of the system. This causes variations in the radial velocity
of the star. Radial velocity is the speed at which a star moves towards or away
from us.
One of the absorption lines on the spectrum for the star has l = 656.300000
nm. This shifts to 656.300123 nm when the star is moving away from the
observer.
Dl v
To determine the radial velocity of a star:
l

In the expression, lis the emitted wavelength and Dl is the change in wavelength from
Doppler shift. The value of c, the speed of light, is 3 108 m/s.

the radial-velocity trend of 51

Pegasi indicates the presence of
an unseen companion (51 Pegasi
b). The gravitational influence of
the planet on the star is
measured at ~56 m/s, with an
orbital period of just 4.2 Earth
days.

Since 1999, it has been

known that a Jupitermass planet orbits the
star HD209458 (spectral
class estimates F8V to
G0V) every 3.52 days.

Detection of a gas
giant around an
M-type star.