Saturday, 2 April 2011

Planet Radome

image credit

They look as if they might be home to families of extra-terrestrials recently arrived on earth from some sort of galactic cataclysm - and they are everywhere and increasing in number. Your average radome may look like it's from a science fiction novel but its real purpose is much more down to earth: it is a kind of umbrella.

It's all about the weather. Inside a radome there will be a microwave or radar antenna. If you build a case around something like a radar antenna then ordinarily something called attenuation happens - it's sometimes known as extinction. This is when flux gradually loses intensity through a medium. A simple example is you in the summertime - you wear dark glasses to attenuate sunlight.

(thanks Robert-John)

1 comment(s):

Noumenon said...

You didn't copy enough of the text at the link, because this left me thinking "so why would you want to build a case around the radar and cause attenuation?" Turns out these cases are specifically designed not to cause attentuation.