Coherent Echo

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Coherent Echo

A radar echo whose phase and amplitude at a given range remain relatively constant.
Hills, buildings, and slowly moving point targets such as ships are examples of objects which produce coherent radar echoes. Volume targets (such as clouds and precipitation) give noncoherent echoes. The classification of an echo as coherent or noncoherent is closely related to the spatial resolution (beam width) of the radar or the volume occupied by the radar pulse. Thus, small atmospheric inhomogeneities which give rise to noncoherent echoes, would give coherent echoes if the radar volume were reduced in size to the order of magnitude of the inhomogeneities themselves.

References

This article is based on NASA's Dictionary of Technical Terms for Aerospace Use