Specific radar principles we will be exploring are range resolution, azimuth direction, surface roughness, look direction, and depression angle. Please show all of your work. The unique feature of imaging radar is its ability to collect data over virtually any region at any time, regardless of weather or sunlight conditions. Some radar waves can penetrate clouds, and under certain conditions, can also see through vegetation, ice and extremely dry sand. In many cases, radar is the only way scientists can explore inaccessible regions of Earth's surface.
Radar is a lowercase acronym for radio detection and ranging.
A synthetic aperture radar transmits pulses of microwave energy toward Earth and measures the strength and time delay of the energy that is scattered back to the antenna. A longer antenna produces images of finer resolution. Conditions on the Earth's surface influence how much radar energy is reflected back to the antenna. An area with a variety of surface types, such as hills, trees and large rocks, will generally reflect more energy back to the radar than a less complex area such as a desert. The resulting radar image of the varied terrain will be brighter overall than the image of the simpler area.