Meaning of virtual beam width and beam spacing

[rwall2]

Hello! In grid_mapper.map_to_grid, there are keywords for nb, and bsp (virtual beam width and virtual beam spacing respectively). Can someone explain what those are exactly?

[mgrover1]

Here are some definitions:

• virtual beam width: beamwidth of the antenna, this is the number of degrees wide the beam is more explanation here
• virtual beam spacing: the distance (in degrees) between beams, more description here

This is essentially creating a synthetic radar, with beams expanding radially, and you can configure how large and how far apart these beams are. Ideally, you would use rough estimates from your actual radar to feed in here, which would help the gridding/radius of influence calculations.

[rwall2]

Thank you!