Slant range

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In telecommunication, slant range is the line-of-sight distance between two points, not at the same level relative to a specific datum. An example of slant range is the distance to an airborne radar target, e.g., an aircraft flying at high altitude with respect to that of the radar antenna. The slant range is the hypotenuse of the triangle represented by the altitude of the aircraft and the distance between the radar antenna and the aircraft's ground track (the point on the Earth at which it is directly overhead). In the absence of altitude information, the aircraft location would be plotted farther from the antenna than its actual ground track.

Source: from Federal Standard 1037C and from MIL-STD-188 and from the Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms