I see that there exist radar devices used for tracking howitzer shells and small missiles. I think such devices should be able to detect Lana.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-battery_radar
The Royal Radar Establishment in the UK developed a different approach
for their Green Archer system. Instead of a conical beam, the radar
signal was produced in the form of a fan, about 40 degrees wide and 1
degree high. A Foster scanner modified the signal to cause it to focus
on a horizontal location that rapidly scanned back and forth. This
allowed it to comprehensively scan a small "slice" of the sky. The
operator would watch for mortar bombs to pass through the slice,
locating its range with pulse timing, its horizontal location by the
location of the Foster scanner at that instant, and its vertical
location from the known angle of the thin beam. The operator would
then flick the antenna to a second angle facing higher into the air,
and wait for the signal to appear there. This produced the necessary
two points that could be processed by an analogue computer. A similar
system was the US AN/MPQ-4A, although this was a somewhat later design
and somewhat more automated as a result.
However, once phased array radars compact enough for field use and
with reasonable digital computing power appeared they offered a better
solution. A phased array radar has many transmitter/receiver modules
which use differential tuning to rapidly scan up to a 90 degree arc
without moving the antenna. They can detect and track anything in
their field of view, providing they have sufficient computing power.
They can filter out the targets of no interest (e.g., aircraft) and
depending on their capability track a useful proportion of the rest.
Counter-battery radars used to be mostly X band because this offers
the greatest accuracy for the small radar targets. However, in the
radars produced today C band and S band are common. The Ku band has
also been used. Projectile detection ranges are governed by the radar
cross section (RCS) of the projectiles. Typical RCS are:
- Mortar bomb 0.01 m Artillery shell 0.001 m Light rocket (e.g., 122 mm)
0.009 m Heavy rocket (e.g., 227 mm) 0.018 m
I assume those radar cross sections from Wikipedia are m2 not m. But not sure enough to edit the Wikipedia article!
The radar cross section of a human is 1 m2. Larger than a shell. Which makes sense.
Muzzle velocity of the fastest artillery shells is 1067 m/2. That is 3841 km/hour. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muzzle_velocity
You have Lana flying between 1195 and 4939 km/hr.
I conclude that a device capable of detecting a substantially smaller object moving at comparable speed could also detect Lana.
Re: enough love - Kristin Kreuk's Lana on Smallville was adorable!
