Which statement best describes a land return on radar?

• A. It is stationary relative to shore and often persists in the same location on the display.
• B. It always moves toward the horizon.
• C. It never appears on the radar display.
• D. It changes color randomly.

Answer: (A)

Land returns come from immovable features on the coastline. Because the land doesn’t move, the radar echo from those features stays in the same place on successive scans, so it appears stationary relative to shore and persistence is observed on the display. This steady, fixed echo helps you distinguish coastline from moving targets like ships, which change position on the screen as you and other vessels move. The other statements don’t fit the reality of radar imagery: land does appear on the display, it isn’t continually drifting toward the horizon as a property of land, and while echoes can change in brightness, they don’t change color randomly.