May 25, 2013
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Description
A Doppler radar is a specialized radar that makes use of the Doppler effect to produce velocity data about objects at a distance. It does this by beaming a microwave signal towards a desired target and listening for its reflection, then analyzing how the frequency of the returned signal has been altered by the object's motion. This variation gives direct and highly accurate measurements of the radial component of a target's velocity relative to the radar. Doppler radars are used in aviation, sounding satellites, meteorology, police speed guns, radiology, and bistatic radar.
Partly because of its common use by television meteorologists in on-air weather reporting, the specific term "Doppler Radar" has erroneously become popularly synonymous with the type of radar used in meteorology. Most modern weather radars use the pulse-doppler technique to examine the motion of precipitation, but it is only a part of the processing of their data.
The Doppler radar has also been applied in healthcare, such as fall detection and fall risk assessment, for nursing or clinic purpose.
So, while these radars use a highly specialized form of doppler radar, the term is much broader in its meaning and its applications.
(via Freebase)
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