Coral atolls, or a chain of islands at right...

Coral atolls, or a chain of islands at right...

Question 1 of 2707066636ee928f7522a1c51942a

Coral atolls, or a chain of islands at right angles to the radar beam, may show as a long line rather than as individual targets. What causes this distortion?

Question 1 of 27070

Q

Coral atolls, or a chain of islands at right angles to the radar beam, may show as a long line rather than as individual targets. What causes this distortion?

🔍 Key Concepts

• Radar beam width and how it affects what you see when several small targets lie along the same bearing • Difference between range resolution (separating targets at different distances) and bearing/azimuth resolution (separating targets at different angles) • Effect of pulse length on how close two targets can be on the same bearing and still be seen separately

💭 Think About

• Are these islands lined up more along the same bearing from the ship, or at different ranges on many bearings? How would that change which radar limitation matters most? • Which factor mainly controls whether two nearby echoes can be separated when they are side by side in angle, versus one behind the other in distance? • If the display shows a single long smear instead of distinct points, is that more like a problem in angle (direction) or in distance (range)?

✅ Before You Answer

• Decide if the distortion described is primarily in bearing (azimuth) or range on the radar screen • Recall which choice is specifically tied to how wide the radar beam is in degrees and how that affects target separation • Eliminate options that mainly affect targets that are one behind another along the same line of sight, rather than lined up across the beam