Patent ID: 8253621
Filing Date: 2012-08-28
Classification: G01S

Abstract:
1. A method for searching an angular region of a search volume, said method comprising the steps of: acquiring error information relating to a cue direction; from said error information, determining azimuth and elevation extents of the search volume about the cue direction; determining an angular extent of each radar beam in azimuth and elevation; from said angular extents in azimuth and elevation for each radar beam, determining a number of beams for covering an acquisition face of said search volume; determining a dwell time for each of the radar beams given a search range; multiplying said number of beams by the dwell time per beam to establish a search time; comparing said search time with a maximum allowable search time; initiating radar scanning over said acquisition face if said search time is less that said maximum allowable search time; and partitioning said search face into sub-search-faces if said search time is greater than said maximum allowable search time, and for each of said sub-search-faces, initiating radar scanning; wherein said step of determining the azimuth and elevation extents of the search volume about the cue direction includes the step of projecting a covariance onto a viewplane of the radar, which viewplane is normal to a range vector of the radar.