Toward the detection of bioparticles by radar in the THz region

A first-pass analysis is carried out of a 421 GHz coherent radar to detect the presence of a bioparticle cloud at a stand-off of 1 km. Compared to the incoherent radar performance under identical field conditions, the coherent system achieves a post-demodulator signal-to-noise ratio roughly 300 times higher and far superior probabilities of detection and false alarm.