How does flying low keep you off the radar?
In: Technology
The terrain does block the line of sight of the radar. It literally can’t see your plane when it is behind a mountain. Because of this air surveillance likes to put radars on top of mountains and towers.
Also, and this is an equally “blinding” factor:
The terrain isn’t plain, isn’t made of the same material isn’t standing still (like trees moving in the wind or water waves on the ocean) and isn’t quiet in electromagnetic emissions means (radio signals, TV signals, WiFis, other emisisons on every possible frequency band).
On top of this all these factors literally mutilate the radar signal. Every edge, every different shape and every different material all reflect, refract, shape shift the radar’s EM waves so much that it is impossible for the radar’s detector to distinguish between a plane flying in all these “noise” and the noise itself.
The higher you fly, the more homogeneously spread the noises energy is in the sky and the higher the possibility to dedect a single object. IIRC the safe to detect height is about 5m on open seas and 15m on land. Thus youd have a hard time “sneaking up” below the radar without crashing.
Latest Answers