Class Information

This course comprises primarily lecture material supplemented by readings from class handouts and other references. Lecture notes organized by topic will be handed out routinely, constituting a text. Special handouts will also be distributed from time to time. Reading assignments will be given for most class meetings. These may be from handouts or from other sources, most of which will be on reserve at Terman Engineering Library. Problem assignments will generally be given on Thursdays and collected on Thursdays, with the graded work handed back by the following Monday or Wednesday. Cooperation on homework is encouraged, but you are expected to keep the work on an approximately equal basis. We plan one midterm exam plus a final term project. Grades will be based on the totality of your work, with weightings of approximately 40% on the final project, 25% on the midterm, 30% on homework, and up to 5% extra credit problems and so forth.

A course syllabus and a list of reference books are attached. Assigned readings will usually be from this list. You may also find that a particular book presents material in ways you can more easily understand-so look around for a book with which you are comfortable. There is a number of works on this general subject area at the bookstore. Although there is no specific course text apart from the lecture note handouts, some recommended books are: (i) Modern Radar System Analysis by David K. Barton; (ii) Bistatic Radar by N.J. Willis; (iii) High Resolution Radar by D.R. Wehner; (iv) Aspects of Modern Radar by Eli Brookner (ed.); and (v) Synthetic Aperture Radar by Curlander and McDonough. In the past the book Radar Principles, by Levanon, has been used as a text; this work provides an overview that roughly parallels portions of this course. Some students find Levanon a useful adjunct, but we do not recommend it.

"Radar" is an exciting, eclectic subject that incorporates concepts and results from a range of electrical engineering and other disciplines to synthesize new systems and techniques for remote sensing and measurements. The result is a field that stands alone as a specialty, with very wide applications in science and engineering. At the same time, many techniques first considered as radar have found uses in a variety of other fields such as seismic surveying, acoustic imaging, and underwater sound. Your instructors hope you will find the course interesting, satisfying, and useful. Here we will take as broad a view as possible, focusing on underlying principles to introduce and build competence in this field.