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A member of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) tracking aircraft via radar in 1944.

Radar

Radar was one of the most important factors in the RAF's success in the Battle of Britain. It was deployed across the UK as part of an early warning system which detected incoming enemy planes.


Photo: A member of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) tracking aircraft via radar in 1944.(British Official Photo/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

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The Battle of Britain

Introduction

A member of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) tracking aircraft via radar in 1944. 

Radar

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More information about: Radar

Radar is an object-detection system that uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio waves or microwaves that bounce off any object in their path. The object returns a tiny part of the wave's energy to a dish or antenna that is usually located at the same site as the transmitter.

Radar was secretly developed by several nations before and during World War II. The term RADAR was coined in 1940 by the United States Navy as an acronym for RAdio Detection And Ranging. The term radar has since entered English and other languages as a common noun, losing all capitalization.

The modern uses of radar are highly diverse, including air traffic control, radar astronomy, air-defense systems, antimissile systems; marine radars to locate landmarks and other ships; aircraft anticollision systems; ocean surveillance systems, outer space surveillance and rendezvous systems; meteorological precipitation monitoring; altimetry and flight control systems; guided missile target locating systems; and ground-penetrating radar for geological observations. High tech radar systems are associated with digital signal processing and are capable of extracting useful information from very high noise levels.

Other systems similar to radar make use of other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. One example is "lidar", which uses visible light from lasers rather than radio waves.

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