Visualizing Radar Signatures

Abstract: It is important for the military to know as much as possible about how easily detected their vehicles are. One way among many used to detect vehicles is the use of radar sensors. The radar reflecting characteristics of military vehicles are therefor often rigorously tested. With measurements and simulations it is possible to calculate likely detection distances to a vehicle from different angles. This process often produces very large data sets that are hard to analyze. This thesis discusses and implements a method for visualizing the detection distance data set and also discusses a lot of related issues with a focus on computer graphics. The main concept is called spherical displacement and the idea is to visualize the detection distances as a surface with the imagined vehicle in the center point. Detection is likely inside the surface but not on the outside. This concept is the next step from the colored sphere where the colors represent the detection distance which was previously used. The thesis project resulted in a visualization tool that uses the new concept and can handle large data sets. The spherical displacement concept is more intuitive and shows detail better than the colored sphere visualization.