M2 Blog

Predicting M2 Range

Posted by M2 Team

August 1, 2023

If you were to stand at the location of a radar antenna, your line of sight would be a good indication of what that radar’s detection system can observe. Similar to eyesight, a radar’s detection can have blind spots and areas of weaker sensitivity.  In some cases, height and weather conditions can hinder or improve a radar’s effective range. Using available topographical information, we model the range of these detection systems. Model predictions were kept to a maximum range of five nautical miles since systems at this range can already reliably track smaller vessels, roughly five meters in length, in average conditions. Interestingly, if a radar antenna is placed very high off the water, close areas in its immediate proximity are likely to be shadowed due to the angle of the radar beam. If vessels are large and the conditions are calm, the range of a radar’s field is farther.