Radar Revolution

"An outstanding breakthrough!" exulted Dr. John R. Dunning, dean of the Columbia School of Engineering. "Probably the greatest single advance in radar since the start of World War II and the early British work." Dr. Dunning had good reason to be excited. Last week Columbia scientists and the Air Force's Air Research and Development Command jointly called in the press to announce a fundamentally new technique of multiplying the effectiveness of radar by "many hundreds of times" through a radical system of signal identification.

Columbia's innovation focuses on the basic problem of all radar: how to amplify the returning echo of the electromagnetic wave after it bounces off the target, without simultaneously amplifying the random electrical interference that is also picked up by the receiver. Heretofore, the usual method of improving reception has been the brute-force approach of multiplying the power of the signal. But this multiplication requires costly and cumbersome equipment, is impractical for such isolated sites as the arctic.

Columbia scientists, working on an Air Force contract, dodged around this difficulty by altering the quality of the signal itself. Details of the alteration are still secret. But in effect the scientists added an ingredient to the signal that can be readily identified against background interference picked up by their receiver. "It's a lock and key system," explains Dr. John H. Bose of Columbia's Electronics Research Laboratories. "We know what's locked up in the signal, and our receiver has the key to get it out."

To identify the returning message, Columbia scientists can "hold" the signal for a relatively long time ("the major fraction of a second"). "We can keep the signal 'standing still' long enough to identify it against background interference," explains one scientist.

Nicknamed ORDIR (omnirange digital radar), the new signal technique cannot be applied to existing radar systems. ORDIR's range is still secret, but it will "multiply" the present top range of radar, which can now pick out an airplane at 200-300 miles. In addition, ORDIR's high sensitivity is expected to track such rapid velocity objects as intercontinental missiles and earth satellites. Eventually, aircraft may be equipped with miniaturized ORDIR. But the system is still being developed and refined; no production contracts have been made.

Revolutionizing radar may just be the start for ORDIR. The device's distinctive signal can be applied to many communication systems, will be especially helpful in weak signal situations. One possible use in the future: flashing a signal to earth from a satellite. Concludes Columbia's Dean Dunning: "The system seems to alter the whole concept of how we're going to communicate over long distances and in outer space."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.