Which statement best describes synthetic bandwidth in radar?

Which statement best describes synthetic bandwidth in radar?

• A. Increases range resolution by stepping frequency to synthesize larger bandwidth.
• B. Decreases range resolution by increasing noise.
• C. Has no effect on resolution.
• D. Shortens pulse width.

Answer: (D)

Synthetic bandwidth comes from expanding the effective spectrum the radar uses by stepping the transmitted frequency across a series of narrowband tones (or across a sweep) and then combining the returns. Because range resolution scales with bandwidth (roughly ΔR ≈ c/(2B)), widening the effective bandwidth through these steps gives much finer range resolution. The physical pulse duration isn’t actually shortened—the improvement comes from the larger synthesized bandwidth achieved through processing. So this concept best describes how stepwise frequency synthesis increases range resolution.

Synthetic bandwidth comes from expanding the effective spectrum the radar uses by stepping the transmitted frequency across a series of narrowband tones (or across a sweep) and then combining the returns. Because range resolution scales with bandwidth (roughly ΔR ≈ c/(2B)), widening the effective bandwidth through these steps gives much finer range resolution. The physical pulse duration isn’t actually shortened—the improvement comes from the larger synthesized bandwidth achieved through processing. So this concept best describes how stepwise frequency synthesis increases range resolution.