Definition
A radar return that has been processed by a computer and displayed on a controller's radar scope as a uniform, computer-generated symbol rather than the raw radar echo. The processing converts the original analog radar signal into digital data, allowing the target to be shown consistently regardless of the actual strength or shape of the reflected signal.
Plain English
An aircraft shown on a controller's screen as a clean computer-drawn symbol, instead of the rough blip that the radar antenna actually picked up. The computer cleans up the picture so every aircraft looks the same on the display.
Context Anchor
You will encounter this term when reading about how air traffic controllers identify and track aircraft on radar displays.
Derivation
Digitized comes from the Latin digitus, meaning finger, and later came to mean a numerical digit. To digitize something means to convert it into numbers a computer can handle. So a digitized radar target is a radar return that has been turned into computer data and redrawn as a clean symbol on the screen.
Why Pilots Care
Allows controllers to track and identify aircraft more accurately and reliably on modern digital radar systems, supporting safer separation and traffic management.
Analogy
A digitized radar target is like the moving dot for your car on a map app. The dot is not the car itself; it is the computer’s display of where the car is believed to be.
Intuition Check
Do not read target as something being attacked or aimed at. In radar use, a target is the aircraft or object shown on the radar display.
Example Sentence 1
The controller's scope showed each aircraft as a digitized radar target, making it easy to track multiple flights at once.
Example Sentence 2
When the primary radar signal was weak, the digitized radar target still provided a stable position for traffic advisories.