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Overview of Radar Scopes and Indicators

The information available from radar receiver may contain as many as several million separate data bits per second. From these and other data, such as the orientation of the antenna, the indicator should present to the observer a continuous, easily understandable, graphic picture of the relative position of radar targets. It should provide size, shape, and insofar as possible, indications of the type of targets. A cathode-ray tube (crt) fulfills these requirements to an astonishing degree. The cathode-ray tube’s principal shortcoming is that it cannot present a true three-dimensional picture.

The fundamental geometrical quantities involved in radar displays are the range, azimuth angle (or bearing), and elevation angle. These displays relate the position of radar target to the origin at the antenna. Most radar displays include one or two of these quantities as coordinates of the crt face:

The indicator presents: A-Scope B-Scope PPI-Scope RHI-Scope Raster Scan Monitor
range yes yes yes yes yes
azimuth angle No! yes yes No! yes
elevation angle No! No! No! yes yes
other (like course etc.) No! No! No! No! yes

Table 1: shown by the given screen radar informations

There are more and different indicators of early radars.
These scopes become less important in our day and are briefly mentioned only: