Re: Radar, sonar and more

On Thu, 24 Feb 2000 13:35:39 -0800 (PST), Cleats Balentine writes:
>The information I'm getting is helping ... especially
>when it comes to the sonar question.
>
>About the radar, I'm looking for some (potential)
>natural occurring atmospheric disturbance that could
>prevent the use of radar.
>
>For instance, our intrepid explorers have just entered
>an unknown atmosphere and discover that, for some
>reason, their radar doesn't function properly. Is
>there even the remote possibility that could happen?

I'm guessing here, as my phyics and wave-mechanics classes were a LONG
time ago, but there are definitly some things that would play heck
with radar.

1) Dust storms, or anything that gets solid particles up into the air.
Especially ones that are very reflective to radar.  Too many bounces.

2) I'd guess that some complex molecules, especially organic plastics,
could absorb the radar.  So go for a soupy jungle atmosphere and say
that there's so much of this stuff in the air it really degrades the
signal.  Maybe the organic soup even LIKES the radar.  Yummm.
Energy. :)

3) Radar is mostly useless in things like forests, so go for world
trees.	A la the Hyperion books.  A world covered with tree's a mile
high.  Withen the forest, the trees would make radar mostly useless.

-=- Matthew L. Seidl		email: seidl@cs.colorado.edu		
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