10

INTRODUCTION TO MONOPULSE

Targets

most azimuth profiles of terrain at a given elevation, which is

the reason why only the elevation profile of terrain may be

described by the return from each pulse and hence why the beam

must be narrow in azimuth. The angle of arrival will not be a

set of discrete values, as in the case of truly isolated point targets,

but instead it will vary continuously over the elevation profile as

the pulse moves radially outward.

Angular resolution

Angular resolution, or the ability to distinguish the diffraction

patterns of two point sources, is limited in conventional receiving

systems to the half-power beamwidth of the

diffraction pattern. This is the famous

Rayleigh criterion of optics,* which applies

equally well to conventional radio-frequency

(r-f) systems. Monopulse, on the other hand,

makes use of the range resolution inherent to

the concept to relax this limitation. Any

number of isolated pulsed sources, such as

radar targets at different ranges, can be

separated by gating (Fig. 1.5), after which

their angular positions within the diffraction

patterns of the antenna can be determined

with considerably higher accuracy by simul-

taneous lobing. An increase in angular reso-

lution by at least a factor of ten over the

Rayleigh resolution is common. But without

range resolution to isolate the individual

Fig. 1.5 Separa-

tion of radar tar-

gets by range gat-

ing (gated area of

beam is shaded).

pulsed sources within the beam, the angular resolution of mono-

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pulse reduces to exactly that of a conventional receiving system.

1.3 Angle noise

The effect of noise on any measurement of angle of arrival is to

produce an uncertainty, or jitter, in the angular measurement.

This was described for conical scanning in connection with the

pulse-to-pulse fading records in Fig. 1.2. Monopulse, as well,

is limited in angular accuracy by noise. It has an important

advantage over any other form of pulsed direction finding, how-

* F. A. Jenkins and H. E. White, "Fundamentals of Physical Optics,"

McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York, 1937, p. 120.