A warm welcome to the 5th European Radar Conference (EuRAD) being held in Amsterdam as part of European Microwave Week. The European Radar Conference started in Amsterdam four years ago thanks to the inspiration and determination of Leo Ligthart. Since then the number of submitted and accepted papers has doubled and EuRAD has grown to one of the largest radar events in Europe and one that is recognised worldwide.


This year we have received almost 170 submissions to the conference, not only from Europe but also from America, Asia and Africa. They cover a wide range of radar topics including technology, signal processing and system design and evaluation and various applications. This year, papers on radar applications cover environmental remote sensing systems for hazard prevention and monitoring applications, homeland security and military related systems as well as radars for surveillance, transport guidance and control. Based on submitted papers the TPC has put together a conference programme of excellent quality and interest.

The conference programme, in which oral sessions are complemented by joint sessions with the European Microwave Conference (EuMC) sessions, a poster session and an interactive poster session, will give a wide overview of the most recent advances in the field of radar and radar applications. In the opening EuRAD session an overview of one of the most successful recent radar projects in Europe – the PAMIR active phased-array system – will be given. At the closing session a presentation on Government-Industry-University cooperation towards long-term radar innovations is scheduled. The conference programme is completed by four workshops on active phased arrays, Square Kilometre Array (SKA), ad-hoc radar sensor networks, and radar performance prediction based on tests and simulations.

Amsterdam is a place for innovations. It was here that EuMW started in 1998, EuRAD was launched in 2004 and this year for the first time we introduce an interactive poster (or demo) session. This interactive poster session will be held jointly with EuMC on Thursday. During this session the authors can present real-time operations of developed hardware or software or demonstrate movies (slide-shows) showing the operation of complete systems. The interactive poster session gives an excellent chance to span academic and industrial developments. Also, for the first time, the EuRAD conference will be attended by delegates of the Military Radar Conference of IQPC, which will be held in parallel with EuMW.

For the first time an on-line version of the conference programme is being kept up to date until the conference. All known programme changes are reflected in this .pdf file, which can be downloaded from:www.eumweek.com. Check regularly for a new version.

TECHNOLOGY PERSPECTIVE
Alexander Yarovoy’s overview of European radar development

Since its inception in 2004, the European Radar Conference has focused on the utilization of microwave technology in radar. The conference scope covers the complete spectrum of radar subsystems, systems and applications. And the conference content reflects modern trends in radar development as well as modern radar applications.

Looking at previous EuRAD conferences, one can observe a number of modern trends in radar development, including:
• Miniaturization and cost reductions that make the use of microwave systems in mass applications feasible
• The flexibility of phased-array sensors that make sensors adaptable to a variety of functions
• The increase of computational power that facilitate functions that need high processing power, like microwave imaging
• The advances in wireless communication that make it possible to combine sensor nodes in a network and develop distributed sensing systems.

This year the conference contributions and proposed workshops reflect the current trends and activities within the industry. Three clear focused areas can be identified:
• Active phase arrays and ultra-wideband (UWB) technology as well as their applications in high-resolution and imaging radars
• Advanced signal processing for target tracking and classification
• Radar sensor networks.

The conference contributions reflect the current trends and activities within the industry and cover a wide range of topics, mentioned in the Focus on EuRAD above. The origin of contributions demonstrates a thriving European radar community, with those coming from the Newly Independent States being particularly significant.

Active phased arrays have become a leading radar technology for all high-performing radar systems. They are widely used in large space-based systems as well as small UAVs. They have considerable potential to grow by using adaptation capabilities existing in hardware and firmware.

Due to growing demand, intelligent sensing target classification and identification is becoming an increasingly important goal of radar systems. To this end, UWB technology provides a number of efficient and affordable solutions. A number of sessions in the conference programme provide wide coverage of current status of UWB radar technology as well as diverse UWB radar applications such as security, radar imaging and subsurface sensing.

Special attention of the European Union within the Seventh Framework Programme is to increase the security of citizens, of infrastructures and utilities, realise intelligent surveillance, enhance border security and promote the development of large integrated sensors systems. In such systems distributed sensing by means of sensor networks will be used to improve situation awareness. This means not only the substantial extension of radar theory and technology from mono-static to multi-static scenarios, but also integration of different wireless services (such as telecommunications, radar and positioning) within a single device.