What does Automatic Gain Control (AGC) do during periods of ambient noise?

Automatic Gain Control (AGC) is a crucial feature in radar systems, particularly during periods of ambient noise. Its primary purpose is to ensure optimal signal quality by managing the gain applied to received signals. When ambient noise is present, AGC functions to reduce the gain of selected intermediate frequency (IF) signals, allowing the radar to distinguish between actual target signals and the surrounding noise.

By reducing gain during high levels of ambient noise, AGC helps prevent false target detections and enhances the clarity of the signals of interest. This means the system can react dynamically to changes in environmental conditions, ensuring that legitimate targets are still detected and tracked effectively without being obscured by noise.

In contrast, increasing the gain of all signals could result in amplifying both the noise and the target signals equally, thus not improving the overall detection capability. Automatically adjusting to maintain frequency is not the primary function of AGC; AGC's focus is on managing signal gain rather than frequency control. Detecting only moving targets pertains to other radar functionalities, such as Doppler processing, and does not describe the operation of AGC.