THE RADAR EQUATIOm/23 INTRODUCTION TO RADAR SYSTEMS

engineer. II describes (lie envelope of the noise output From a narrowband filler where k is a constant. A rectangular, or uniform, distribution describes the phase
(such as the IF Ciller in a superheterodyne receiver), the cross-section fluctuations of of a random sine wave relative to a particular origin of time; that is, the phase of
certain types of complex radar targets, and many kinds of clutter and weather the sine wave may be found, with equal probability, anywhere from 0 to 2n, with
echoes. The Rayleigh density function is k = l/2n. It also applies to the distribution of the round-off (quantizing) error in
numerical computations and in analog-to-digital converters.
v >0
The constant k may be found by applying Eq. (2.10); that is,
(2.17)
f p(x) dx=\ k dx = 1 or k = [ The average value of
x is
»'(*) = <xfx exp | -
b a+=
This is plotted in Fig. 2.2c. The parameter x might represent a voltage, and <.xJ>.v the
mean, or average, value of the voltage squared. If v2 is replaced by iv, where w 2
represents power instead of voltage (assuming the resistance is 1 ohm), Eq. (2.17)
becomes
m'~ L b'
(2.18)

>v > 0

= - exp | - ,

where iv0 is the average power. This is the exponential probability-density function, This result could have been determined by inspection. The second-moment, or
but it is sometimes called the Rayleigh-power probability-density function. It is mean square, value is
plotted in Fig. 2.2d. The standard deviation of the Rayleigh density of Eq. (2.17) is
equal to ^/(4/ir) - 1 times the mean value, and for the exponential density of Eq. Tdx = a> + ab + J
(2.18) the standard deviation is equal to »v There are other probability-density
functions of interest in radar, such as the Rice, log normal. and ( h e chi square.
These will he introduced as needed. and the variance is

Another mathematical description of statistical phenomena is the probability a1 — m — m1 = — 12

distribution functinn P[x), defined as the probability that the value x is less than
some specified value
(2.19) a - standard deviation =

P(.x) = | p{x) dx or The gaussian, or normal, probability density (Fig. 2.2b) is one of the most important
in noise theory, since many sources of noise, such as thermal noise or shot noise,
In some cases, the distribution function may be easier to obtain from an may be represented by gaussian statistics. Also, a gaussian representation is often
experimental set of data (han the density function. The density function may be more convenient to manipulate mathematically. The gaussian density function has a
found from the distribution function by differentiation. bell-shaped appearance and is defined by

(5 SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO 275

In th i s section the results ofstatistical noise theory will be applied to obtain the (2.15)
signal-to-noise ratio at the output of the IF amplifier necessary to achieve a
specified probability of detection without exceeding a specified probability of false
alarm. The output signal-to-noise ratio thus obtained may be substituted into Eq.
(2.6) to find the minimum detectable signal, which, in turn, is used in the radar
equation, as in Eq. (2.7).
—
Consider an IF amplifier with bandwidth Bif followed by a second detector and a
video amplifier with bandwidth B,. (Fig. 2.3). The second detector and video 2<r2
amplifier are assumed to form an envelope detector, that is, one which rejects the
carrier Irequency but passes the modulation envelope. To extract the modulation
envelope, the video bandwidth must be wide enough to pass the low-frequency ■3=-
components generated by the second detector, but not so wide as to pass the
high-frequency components at or near the intermediate frequency. The video where exp [ ] is the exponential function, and the parameters have been adjusted
bandwidth B,. must be greater than B^/2 in order to pass all the video modulation. to satisfy the normalizing condition of Eq. (210). It can be shown that
Most radar receivers used in conjunction with an operator viewing a CRT display
meet this condition and m, = | xp(x) dx = x0 m2 * \ x2p(x) dx ~ x$ + «" Hz =
m2 - mj = a1 (2.16)
IF • - «> ■ - »

The probability density of the sum of a large number of independently distributed

omplifier (Sir) quantities approaches the gaussian probability-density function no matter what
the individual distributions may be, provided that the contribution of any one
quantity is not comparable with the resultant of all others. This is the central limit
Video theorem. Another property of the gaussian distribution is that no matter how large
a value x we may choose, there is always some finite probability of finding a
greater value. If the noise at the input of the threshold detector were truly

Amplifier gaussian, then no matter how high the threshold were set, there would always be a
chance that it would be exceeded by noise and appear as a false alarm. However,
the probability diminishes rapidly with increasing x, and for all practical purposes
I I the probability of obtaining an exceedingly high value of v is negligibly small.

The Rayleigh probability-density function is also of special interest to the radar

Second defector systems

lignre 2.3 Envelope detector.