A civil defense radar installation uses an automated tracking dish mounted at ground level to monitor oncoming flight vectors. The radar sits at a fixed perpendicular distance of from the approach flight path. An incoming target flies at a constant altitude of and approaches the station horizontally with distance coordinate (in ).
The tracking angle (in radians) of the servo-actuator dish adjusts relative to the plane's horizontal distance coordinate according to the inverse trigonometric relationship:
As the plane flies inward, its coordinate distance decreases over time (in seconds) according to the linear tracking velocity:
- Apply the Inverse Tangent Chain Rule to find the spatial rate of change of the angle with respect to distance ().
- Simplify algebraically by clearing compound fractions.
- Link spatial angular change to temporal tracking speed using the Chain Rule ().
- Calculate the required angular sweep velocity of the servo motor () when the horizontal distance settles at .