An Examination of the Spectral Utility of Radar

The utility of the electromagnetic spectrum is challenging to define. An initial examination of the spectral utility of radar is presented from an information theoretic perspective. Specifically, the fundamental capacity of a pulse-Doppler radar as a function of spectral occupancy is explored from first principles. This framework provides a measure of the maximum information, in bits, that can be obtained by a radar sensor. The impact of radar detector structure on this capacity is explored, and the spectral efficiency of target location estimation is examined.