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  <front>
    <journal-meta>
      <journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">cndcgs</journal-id>
      <journal-title-group>
        <journal-title>Challenges to national defence in contemporary geopolitical situation</journal-title>
      </journal-title-group>
      <issn pub-type="epub">2538-8959</issn>
      <issn pub-type="ppub">2669-2023</issn>
      <publisher>
        <publisher-name>LKA</publisher-name>
      </publisher>
    </journal-meta>
    <article-meta>
      <article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">9_2026_PLIVA</article-id>
      <article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.47459/cndcgs.2026.9</article-id>
      <article-categories>
        <subj-group subj-group-type="heading">
          <subject>Article</subject>
        </subj-group>
      </article-categories>
      <title-group>
        <article-title>Terrain-Atmosphere Coupled Radar Detectability Mapping for Military Low-Level Air Maneuver</article-title>
      </title-group>
      <contrib-group>
        <contrib contrib-type="author">
          <name>
            <surname>PLÍVA</surname>
            <given-names>Petr</given-names>
          </name>
          <email xlink:href="mailto:petr.pliva@unob.cz">petr.pliva@unob.cz</email>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="j_cndcgs_aff_000"/>
          <xref ref-type="corresp" rid="cor1">∗</xref>
        </contrib>
        <aff id="j_cndcgs_aff_000">Department of Military Geography and Meteorology, Faculty of Military Technology, University of Defence, Czech Republic</aff>
        <contrib contrib-type="author">
          <name>
            <surname>ROUČKOVÁ</surname>
            <given-names>Lenka</given-names>
          </name>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="j_cndcgs_aff_001"/>
        </contrib>
        <aff id="j_cndcgs_aff_001">Department of Military Geography and Meteorology, Faculty of Military Technology, University of Defence, Czech Republic</aff>
        <contrib contrib-type="author">
          <name>
            <surname>SCHNEIDROVÁ</surname>
            <given-names>Alžběta</given-names>
          </name>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="j_cndcgs_aff_002"/>
        </contrib>
        <aff id="j_cndcgs_aff_002">Department of Military Geography and Meteorology, Faculty of Military Technology, University of Defence, Czech Republic</aff>
        <contrib contrib-type="author">
          <name>
            <surname>KOVAŘÍK</surname>
            <given-names>Vladimír</given-names>
          </name>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="j_cndcgs_aff_003"/>
        </contrib>
        <aff id="j_cndcgs_aff_003">Department of Military Geography and Meteorology, Faculty of Military Technology, University of Defence, Czech Republic</aff>
        <contrib contrib-type="author">
          <name>
            <surname>ČAPEK</surname>
            <given-names>Jaromír</given-names>
          </name>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="j_cndcgs_aff_004"/>
        </contrib>
        <aff id="j_cndcgs_aff_004">Department of Military Geography and Meteorology, Faculty of Military Technology, University of Defence, Czech Republic</aff>
      </contrib-group>
      <author-notes>
        <corresp id="cor1"><label>∗</label>Corresponding author.</corresp>
      </author-notes>
      <volume>2026</volume>
      <issue>1</issue>
      <fpage>81</fpage>
      <lpage>89</lpage>
      <pub-date pub-type="epub">
        <day>30</day>
        <month>06</month>
        <year>2026</year>
      </pub-date>
      <permissions>
        <license license-type="open-access">
          <license-p>Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY)</license-p>
        </license>
      </permissions>
      <abstract>
        <p>Military low-level air maneuver in contested environments is constrained by adversary radar surveillance and the need to minimize exposure while remaining terrain- and mission-feasible. Although terrain masking reduces direct line-of-sight (LOS) to a radar, detectability cannot be assessed from geometry alone, as it also depends on the radar energy budget, receiver noise, processing gain, and the adopted detection criterion. This paper presents a reproducible GIS-oriented workflow that couples LOS-based masking products, including visibility and minimal visible altitude above ground level (AGL), with an energy-based detectability model expressed through signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and probability of detection (PD). The workflow further incorporates scenario-dependent atmospheric modifiers representing gaseous attenuation, rain attenuation, and refractivity-driven propagation effects, while retaining the possibility of higher-fidelity propagation modelling where required. In addition to 2D exposure layers, the approach supports constrained low-exposure route generation and optional 3D voxel-based representations of detectability in the near-ground layer. A case study in the Brno area demonstrates the generation of LOS and altitude-margin products, SNR/PD raster layers, and example low-exposure corridors derived from raster threat masks. The results show that radar exposure is highly sensitive to terrain, altitude, and environmental assumptions, and that the proposed workflow provides a transferable decision-support framework for comparative analysis of low-level operations in contested airspace.</p>
      </abstract>
      <kwd-group>
        <label>Keywords</label>
        <kwd>Atmospheric propagation</kwd>
        <kwd>Detectability-constrained routing</kwd>
        <kwd>Probability of detection</kwd>
        <kwd>Radar exposure assessment</kwd>
        <kwd>Terrain masking</kwd>
      </kwd-group>
    </article-meta>
  </front>
</article>
