How does radar work during A-G mode

[Skrzatek]

Hey, I'm wondering how the F-16 radar uses its antenna in A-G mode. Antenna elevation doesn't affect the image (but antenna azimuth does), and the radar scans the entire area in front of the aircraft and directly below it simultaneously.

[skywalker22]

 

[Skrzatek]

@skywalker22 Unfortunately, this video is not the answer to my question and provides too little explanation (more from an user point of view, not technical).

[Tholozor]

Funny enough this has been brought up before a few years ago: 

 

[Skrzatek]

So if I understand correctly, the only true word in F-16's "Air to Ground Radar" is "ground"?

[skywalker22]

40 minutes ago, Skrzatek said:

So if I understand correctly, the only true word in F-16's "Air to Ground Radar" is "ground"?

From air to ground. It's also "Air to Air".

[Skrzatek]

@skywalker22 I already knew before that "Air to Air" part was poorly simulated, now I was only wondering about A-G.

[RogueSpecterGaming]

7 hours ago, Skrzatek said:

So if I understand correctly, the only true word in F-16's "Air to Ground Radar" is "ground"?

Are you thinking that the phrase "Air-to-Ground" means that it should have an "Air" capability to the radar while also being able to have the "Ground" capability?? Are you thinking it should show you air targets as well??

[Ivandrov]

Air-to-ground radar is correct. It is a radar used in the air, and this mode is used to scan for and map ground returns.

Edited yesterday at 05:52 AM by Ivandrov

[Skrzatek]

@RogueSpecterGaming No, I am thinking that the phrase "Air to Ground Radar" should mean that there is a radar in the air that is emitting radio waves to the ground, not a fancy looking F10 map plotted on MFD.

[Furiz]

14 hours ago, Ivandrov said:

Air-to-ground radar is correct. It is a radar used in the air, and this mode is used to scan for and map ground returns.

I think you misunderstood what the issue is here.

no matter where the nose is pointed it will always scan the ground, when in some cases it is not physically possible to turn the antenna to the ground while the nose is pointed 85 degrees up. Like in this image:

Edited yesterday at 07:50 PM by Furiz

[Ivandrov]

4 hours ago, Furiz said:

I think you misunderstood what the issue is here.

no matter where the nose is pointed it will always scan the ground, when in some cases it is not physically possible to turn the antenna to the ground while the nose is pointed 85 degrees up. Like in this image:

This is the issue presented in the linked topic. There's no mention of any kind of nose angle in OP's original post.

Also that was a reply to a flippant comment.

 

As far as any updates to the A2G radar goes. They are likely very low priority as neither most players nor the real life pilots seemed to like to use it.

Edited 21 hours ago by Ivandrov

[RogueSpecterGaming]

4 hours ago, Furiz said:

I think you misunderstood what the issue is here.

no matter where the nose is pointed it will always scan the ground, when in some cases it is not physically possible to turn the antenna to the ground while the nose is pointed 85 degrees up. Like in this image:

Yeah, that's weird. Lmao maybe we will get better simulation in the future. 

[Skrzatek]

14 hours ago, Ivandrov said:

There's no mention of any kind of nose angle in OP's original post.

From my post: "Antenna elevation doesn't affect the image (but antenna azimuth does), and the radar scans the entire area in front of the aircraft and directly below it simultaneously."

Current F-16's "A-G radar" scans the whole ground, no matter what is the antenna elevation (it can even point up into sky). Scanning terrain while in high pitch angles is related to this behaviour.

[TobiasA]

DBSP2 can even scan outside of the scan volume in some cases when entered before the target went out of scope.