Sensor globe



A sensor globe allowed shipboard sensor systems to operate. The sensor dish could complete the same tasks, albeit with a different exterior appearance.

Sensor globes used on top of Star Destroyers and Super Star Destroyers contained hyperwave transceiver coils and long-range scanners. The scanners could feed targeting information to the ship's weapons systems, which made them viable targets once the main shields went down in a battle.

The sensor globes also contained projector vanes for an auxillary shielding system, that had a local-area effect only. The vanes were positioned in a crown-like formation around the sensor globes, forming the ISD-72x shield generator dome system.

Behind the scenes

 * There has been some controversy as to whether the domes on Imperial Star Destroyer bridge towers are actually sensor globes, or shield generators. Richard Edlund, one of the SFX artists on ROTJ, noted in the February 1983 issue of Cinefex that they were "radar domes", i.e for sensor purposes.


 * Later guidebooks from Dorling Kindersley devoted to the worlds and vehicles of the films, performed what was said to be "the most thorough research done on the vehicles" according to a LFL blurb in Star Wars Insider 68. These books also labeled them as sensor globes, but with local-area shielding vanes, instead of being the main shield generators on-board the ship.