Radar astronomy symposium report

At the October 1959 meeting of the United States National Committee of the International Scientific Radio Union (URSI), a special symposium on radar astronomy was held. The symposium, which took the form of a panel discussion, was part of the technical program presented at the San Diego meetings by URSI Commission 3. The purpose of the symposium was to call attention to the potential usefulness of radar in the exploration of the solar system and to report on past work. Although the name ‘radar astronomy’ is relatively new, a number of experiments of this class have been conducted for more than 15 years. Recent improvement in radar systems and techniques, however, will soon make it possible to extend new and important astronomical studies out to the far reaches of the solar system.