What It Can Do
Using pulses of short radio waves, search radar scans a large volume of space two or four times a minute. Metal objects such as ships and planes reflect the waves back to the radar set, which can then detect their location. Ground clutter, which is produced by non-metal objects, and sea return (produced by ocean waves at some sites) can degrade radar images. Under certain atmospheric conditions, an organism may illuminate adjacent radar sampling volumes and appear as a multipixel blob on the display.