Patent ID: 8717226

Claim:
A method for processing airborne radar signals in a radar receiver to correct an erroneous angle of pointing of a radar beam, comprising an evaluation of an error in a pointing angle for a constant height of an aerial transporter, and comprising, for a given angle of scan: carrying out at least two series of measurements of a power of echoes returned following an emission of radar signals with a radar receiver, each series being associated with a given distance-bin, the measurements being dependent on an angle of pointing of a radar antenna, formulating a vertical profile of the power of the echoes returned for each series of measurements with the radar receiver, and then measuring on a basis of each vertical profile, the pointing angle corresponding to a power of the echoes returned by the ground alone with the radar receiver, and calculating an error in the pointing angle on the basis of the measured pointing angles with the radar receiver, wherein the measuring of the pointing angle for which ground echoes are returned further comprises obtaining a synthetic vertical profile of the power of the echoes returned by the ground alone, and for each measured vertical profile: a superposition of the synthetic vertical profile with the formulated vertical profile of power considered, doing so for various values of the angle of pointing, a calculation of the error existing between the formulated vertical profile of power and the synthetic vertical profile, for each value of the pointing angle considered, and a determination of the value of the pointing angle for which the calculated error is a minimum, this value corresponding to the pointing angle for which ground echoes are returned.