El radar (término derivado del acrónimo inglés radio detection and ranging, “detección y medición [de distancias] por radio”) es un sistema que usa ondas electromagnéticas para medir distancias, altitudes, direcciones y velocidades de objetos estáticos o móviles como aeronaves, barcos, vehículos motorizados, formaciones meteorológicas y el propio terreno. Su funcionamiento se basa en emitir un impulso de radio, que se refleja en el objetivo y se recibe típicamente en la misma posición del emisor. A partir de este "eco" se puede extraer gran cantidad de información. El uso de ondas electromagnética con diversas longitudes de onda permite detectar objetos más allá del rango de otro tipo de emisiones (luz visible, sonido, etc.) Entre sus ámbitos de aplicación se incluyen la meteorología, el control del tráfico aéreo y terrestre y gran variedad de usos militares.

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(For other uses, see Radar (disambiguation).) Radar is an object-detection system that uses radio waves to determine the range, angle, or velocity of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. A radar system consists of a transmitter producing electromagnetic waves in the radio or microwaves domain, an emitting antenna, a receiving antenna (separate or the same as the previous one) to capture any returns from objects in the path of the emitted signal, a receiver and processor to determine properties of the object(s). Radar was secretly developed by several nations in the period before and during World War II. The term RADAR was coined in 1940 by the United States Navy as an acronym for RAdio Detection And Ranging. The term radar has since entered English and other languages as a common noun, losing all capitalization. The modern uses of radar are highly diverse, including air and terrestrial traffic control, radar astronomy, air-defence systems, antimissile systems, marine radars to locate landmarks and other ships, aircraft anticollision systems, ocean surveillance systems, outer space surveillance and rendezvous systems, meteorological precipitation monitoring, altimetry and flight control systems, guided missile target locating systems, ground-penetrating radar for geological observations, and range-controlled radar for public health surveillance. High tech radar systems are associated with digital signal processing, machine learning and are capable of extracting useful information from very high noise levels. Other systems similar to radar make use of other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. One example is "lidar", which uses ultraviolet, visible, or near infrared light from lasers rather than radio waves.

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