Radar is a legal necessity for the safe navigation of merchant ships and within vessel traffic services is indispensable to the operation of major ports and harbours. Target Detection by Marine Radar concentrates solely on civil marine operations and explains how civil surveillance radars detect their targets. There are numerous diagrams and worked examples to help the reader understand the principles underlying radar operation and to quantify the importance of factors such as technical features of specific equipment, the weather, the ability of the operator. The accuracy with which targets are positioned on the radar screen and with which their progress is tracked or predicted depends on how definitely they have been detected, so a chapter has been devoted to the issue of accuracy. The various international regulations governing marine radar are examined, a brief historical background is given to modern day practice and the book closes with a discussion of ways in which marine radar may develop to meet future challenges.