Impact of Sand and Dust Storms on Radar Performance: Attenuation and Phase Distortion Analysis With Field Experiments

Charged sand and dust storms (SDS) cause scattering, absorption, and phase modulation of electromagnetic waves (EW), leading to degradation of radar and wireless system performance.These effects are also highly relevant to remote sensing, where radar sensors are widely used to observe the Earth’s surface and atmosphere. Despite prior studies, the fundamental mechanisms governing the impact of SDS on radar remain insufficiently understood. In this letter, the radar equation in SDS environments is derived, and the attenuation law of radar detection range caused by SDS and the impact of SDS on the phase characteristics of radar echo signal are analyzed based on the physical characteristics of charged SDS and the radar principle. Experiments were conducted in SDS environments, validating the impact of SDS on radar through measured data