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| Before RADAR could be born, scientists first
needed to understand the principles of radio waves. In 1887,
a physicist named Heinrich Hertz began experimenting with
radio waves in his laboratory in Germany. He found that
radio waves could be transmitted through different
materials. Some materials reflected the radio waves. He
developed a system to measure the speed of the waves. The
data he collected, and the information he uncovered,
encouraged further scientific investigation of radio. |
| Hertz's experiments were the foundation for
the development of radio communication, and, later, RADAR. |
Heinrich Hertz (112k) |
| Thirty years later, scientists around the
world were researching the practical use of radio waves to
detect and locate objects. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s,
great effort was put into developing a system by which you
could transmit and receive radio waves, providing useful
information. |
| By the 1940s, and the outbreak of World War
II, the first useful RADAR systems were in place. Germany,
France, Great Britain, and the United States all used RADAR
to navigate their ships, guide their airplanes, and detect
enemy craft before they attacked. |
| In the midst of war, the most significant
peacetime application of RADAR was discovered. During the
war, RADAR operators continually found precipitation, like
rain and snow, appearing in their RADAR fields. Scientists had
not known that RADAR would be sensitive enough to detect
precipitation. Only during the war did the use of RADAR to
study weather become obvious. |
| Today, RADAR is an essential tool for
analyzing and predicting the weather. |
The History of RADAR (725k) |
