depressionang

Depression angle of surface target

collapse all in page

Syntax

depAng = depressionang(H,R)
depAng = depressionang(H,R,MODEL)
depAng = depressionang(H,R,MODEL,Re)

Description

depAng = depressionang(H,R) returns the depression angle from the horizontal at an altitude of H meters to surface targets. The sensor is H meters above the surface. R is the range from the sensor to the surface targets. The computation assumes a curved earth model with an effective earth radius of approximately 4/3 times the actual earth radius.

depAng = depressionang(H,R,MODEL) specifies the earth model used to compute the depression angle. MODEL is either 'Flat' or 'Curved'.

depAng = depressionang(H,R,MODEL,Re) specifies the effective earth radius. Effective earth radius applies to a curved earth model. When MODEL is 'Flat', the function ignores Re.

Input Arguments

H

Height of the sensor above the surface, in meters. This argument can be a scalar or a vector. If both H and R are nonscalar, they must have the same dimensions.

R

Distance in meters from the sensor to the surface target. This argument can be a scalar or a vector. If both H and R are nonscalar, they must have the same dimensions. R must be between H and the horizon range determined by H.

MODEL

Earth model, as one of | 'Curved' | 'Flat' |.

Default: 'Curved'

Re

Effective earth radius in meters. This argument requires a positive scalar value.

Default: effearthradius, which is approximately 4/3 times the actual earth radius

Output Arguments

depAng

Depression angle, in degrees, from the horizontal at the sensor altitude toward surface targets R meters from the sensor. The dimensions of depAng are the larger of size(H) and size(R).

Examples

collapse all

Open Live Script

Calculate the depression angle for a ground clutter patch that is 1.0 km away from a sensor. The sensor is located on a platform 300 m above the ground.

depang = depressionang(300,1000)
depang = 17.4608

More About

collapse all

Depression Angle

The depression angle is the angle between a horizontal line containing the sensor and the line from the sensor to a surface target.

For the curved earth model with an effective earth radius of Re, the depression angle is:

sin−1(H2+2HRe+R22R(H+Re))

For the flat earth model, the depression angle is:

sin−1(HR)

References

[1] Long, Maurice W. Radar Reflectivity of Land and Sea, 3rd Ed. Boston: Artech House, 2001.

[2] Ward, J. “Space-Time Adaptive Processing for Airborne Radar Data Systems,” Technical Report 1015, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, December, 1994.

Extended Capabilities

See Also

|

Introduced in R2011b

Phased Array System Toolbox Documentation

Support