Time encoded spatial display

Abstract

A time compressed radar display system for presenting to the operator radar eturn video which has been accumulated over a relatively long period of time in a very short time span, preferably at TV frame rates. A scan converter receives the radar position data in polar coordinate format and converts it to rectangular coordinate format. Each of the rectangular cells, resulting from the scan conversion, is provided with an address. The radar video is continuously converted from analog to digital. Memory and comparison logic are used for determining and storing the highest value of video data occurring in each of the data cells, during a predetermined number (n) of revolutions of the radar scanning antenna. Logic circuitry is also provided to determine and store the number of antenna revolutions over the most recent (n) scans of the antenna, in which the video level exceeded a predetermined threshold for each of the addressable cells. Additionally, the count of the last frame or antenna scan (within the most recent (n) antenna revolutions) in which the video level exceeded the threshold for each cell is stored. Output processing logic is provided which processes the highest video level for each cell, the number of times the threshold level was exceeded and the count of the last frame on which this threshold was exceeded for each data cell to generate a time compressed radar display picture.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.