Can radar detect velocity?

Doppler radars can measure the component of the velocity of targets toward or away from the radar. This component is called the “radial velocity”.

“Radar makes it possible to determine the direction to an object, generally referred to as the target, based on the direction the antenna is facing ,” says Brooker. The distance to the target is determined from the time taken between transmitting the pulse and receiving the echo.

Weather radars are high-resolution velocity radars, while air defense radars have a large range of velocity detection , but the accuracy in velocity is in the tens of knots.

Doppler effect is used to measure speed in RADAR sensors. When the fixed-frequency radio wave sent from the sender continuously strikes an object that is moving towards or away from the sender, the frequency of the reflected radio wave will be changed.