Water Vapor Imagery: A New Observation for Weather Analysis

Water vapor imagery is now available routinely from weather satellites for use in meteorological operations. Research during the past 5 years has provided insight concerning the physical interpretation of this data under varying atmospheric moisture and temperature distributions. Investigations have also identified new applications for use in operational weather analysis and forecasting. The water vapor patterns and the changes of these patterns with time, relate to upper tropospheric flow, the jet stream, tropopause breaks, the intensification of thunderstorms, and tropical storm motion. Animated hourly water vapor imagery will become available next year for use by National Weather Service (NWS) field forecasters. It will provide them with a new diagnostic tool for short range forecasts.     

Polish radar technology

Polish radar research and development since 1953 is reviewed, covering the development and production of surveillance radars, height finders, tracking radars, air traffic control (ATC) radars and systems, and marine and Doppler radars. Some current work, including an L-band ATC radar for enroute control, a weather channel for primary surveillance radar, signal detection in non-Gaussian clutter, adaptive MTI filters and postdetection filtering, and a basic approach to radar polarimetry, is examined.<>     

Millimeter wave safety warning system for in-vehicle signing

Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) has developed a millimeter wave safety warning system for in-vehicle signing for use in the nation's Intelligent Transportation System (ITS, formerly IVHS). The Safety Warning System TU (SWS) utilizes a homodyne radar that operates at 24.1 GHz as both a radar and a system to transmit highway safety messages. The warning message is received by a police radar detector or stand-alone safety warning receiver without radar detector capability. When the message is received, it is displayed to the driver via an alphanumeric light emitting diode (LED) display. The message can also be announced by a voice synthesizer internal to the receiver or by a flashing LED labeled “SWS.” The system is designed to inform the driver that he or she is being overtaken by a police car or emergency vehicle in motion. When the police car or emergency vehicle stops, the radar transmitter senses that the platform is no longer moving and the system automatically changes its message to warn approaching drivers of a stationary hazard ahead. A second safety warning transmitter deployment concept is to mount the unit near the highway at a fixed location. The fixed location SWS is designed to be programmable and transmit any one of 64 fixed text messages     

The ELDORA/ASTRAIA airborne Doppler weather radar: results fromrecent field tests

The ELDORA/ASTRAIA airborne Doppler weather radar was recently placed in service by US and French atmospheric sciences research laboratories. The ELDORA/ASTRAIA radar is designed to provide high resolution measurements of the air motion and rainfall characteristics of atmospheric storms which are too large, remote or fast-moving to be adequately observed by ground-based radars. This paper discusses the measurement requirements and the design goals of the radar and presents sample measurements from a recent weather research field program     

Taming Tornadoes Storm Abatement from Space

Tornadoes represent the most dangerous and destructive of storms. This paper describes a concept for disrupting the formation of tornadoes in a thunderstorm. Beamed microwave energy from a satellite heats cold rain to affect convective forces in the storm cell. This describes a Thunderstorm Solar Power Satellite (TSPS). The TSPS is based on Space Solar Power Program (SSP) concepts and technology. The concept was evaluated in a numerical simulation using the Advanced Regional Prediction System Code at the Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms (CAPS). Conditions for tornado formation were affected in the simulation. Additional simulation is proposed to determine the specific areas to be heated and the intensity of directed energy to affect tornadogenesis. Benefits from taming tornadoes provide a basis for initial government investment in TSPS. The potential benefits are balanced by reservations about safety. Demonstration of technology and operations may lead to commercial investment in space solar power. We conclude that the TSPS concept merits additional analysis, numerical simulation, and demonstration testing.     

Matched Filter Criteria and Range Weighting for Weather Radar

The effective weighting function for weather radar is defined. This weighting function considers the effects of both the transmitted signal and the receiver filter. It is used to assign effective ranges to samples taken at prescribed times. For uniformly distributed targets it is shown that "signal"-to-noise ratio depends on the receiver filter, transmitted signal envelope, and receiver noise spectral density. Maximization of this signal-to-noise ratio when range resolution constraints are imposed is discussed, and a receiver design approach specifically adapted for Doppler weather radars is developed.     

New Developments in Radar and Radio Sensors for Aircraft Navigation

Recent developments in airborne Doppler and ground mapping navigation radars and ground and satellite based radio systems are described. Simultaneous lobing and slope tracking techniques can remove the well-known Doppler sea bias error in fast and slowly moving vehicles. Doppler velocity information can be extracted from coherent forward-looking mapping radars, and high position fixing accuracy can be achieved by synthetic aperture radars. In radio navigation systems, such as Loran, Omega, and satellite systems, direct-ranging and differential techniques greatly reduce the geometric dilution and propagation effects which have plagued conventional radio navigation systems. The advantages gained by mixing of the data from these and other navigation sensors in a digital multisensor system are discussed and approaches for processing these data are suggested.     

Medium PRF Performance Analysis

A discussion of various types of x-band airborne radars is presented together with their systematic development through the years to the present time. Starting with simple, low pulse-repetition frequency (PRF) radars for measuring radar-target range, airborne radar development proceeded with more sophisticated high PRF Doppler radars where radar-target range and range rate were measured simultaneously. The use of Doppler (frequency) in signal processing allowed the separation of moving from nonmoving targets (ground), enabling the detection of moving targets in the presence of ground clutter. More recent developments in waveform generation and selection has resulted in the development of medium PRF radars, whereby a greater degree of tactical flexibility in target detection is achieved by combining the desirable features of both low and high PRF radars. Part of the available literature gives an overview, together with a specific example of the design and performance of an airborne medium PRF radar. Here, however, the systematic evolution of these radars is emphasized and the necessary theoretical background is developed for their performance calculations. Modern day airborne radars may be equipped with all three modes of operation, low, medium, and high PRF, allowing the operator to utilize the mode best suited for the tactical encounter. Low PRF and high PRF radars have been described elsewhere and are given here primarily for the sake of completeness and for the necessary background for developing medium PRF radar equations. They are also needed for developing the reasons why medium PRF radars came into being.     

Millimeter Radar Instrumentation

Millimeter wavelength radars are used to study plasma effects associated with ionized flow fields of projectiles launched at hypersonic speeds into a free-flight ballistic range. Two CW Doppler radars, at frequencies of 35 and 70 Gc/s, measure the nose-on backscattering radar cross sections during flight. The design and performance of the two radars are described in detail. A signal simulator provides absolute calibration. The purpose is to measure changes that occur in the radar cross sections of hypersonic projectiles caused by highly ionized flow fields. Under certain conditions the nose-on backscattering radar cross section of a blunt-nosed metal projectile decreases drastically when a thin, shock-produced layer of ionized gas covers the projectile. A theoretical analysis of this effect is given. Comparisons between theoretical predictions and experimental data show good correlation.     

History of automotive anticollision radars and final experimentalresults of a MM-Wave car radar developed by the Technical University ofMunich

The history of development of automotive radars in different countries since 1972 is described using a short comparison of radar types. The authors indicate the planning of introduction of car radars in the near future according to information supplied by car companies. The purpose of the development of an automotive radar was to test different signal processing procedures both for distance and Doppler evaluation and also for a digital wavefront reconstruction to find out the angle position of a target. The block diagram, the main properties, the technical data of the radar system, the used antennas and the multiplexing of transmitting antennas is described. Finally some experimental results have been obtained under real traffic conditions     

Adaptive Clutter Suppression in Step Scan Radars

Clutter echoes with unknown power spectra (from weather, sea, chaff disturbances) can be suppressed only adaptively. The use of the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) for clutter suppression in step scan radars is investigated by use of a clutter model that is derived in analogy to measured clutter data of a radar with a rotating antenna.     

FIREFINDER: Position Analysis System Advanced Development Model

The FIREFINDER Position Analysis System, FFPAS, provides FIREFINDER siting and operating personnel with a powerful tool. By automating the site selection and radar set-up processes, the FFPAS will significantly reduce the time and effort required to deploy FIREFINDER radars. Also, many radar effects that are difficult to include when calculations are performed manually, such as blind ranges and Doppler frequencies, variations in the target's radar cross sectional area (RCS), and the strength of the clutter return along a trajectory, can now be included in the radar siting and operational analyses. These capabilities will help the Army's FIREFINDER radars perform with maximum effectiveness on the modern battlefield     

载人航天任务测速雷达双通道数据融合方法

针对载人航天任务中高精度测速雷达在实时多主站外弹道融合时仅能采用单通道应答数据参与处理,获得的弹道精度较差,且测速雷达数据利用率仅有50%的问题,提出利用多普勒效应和应答机遥测参数两种方法对测速雷达跟踪模式进行实时准确识别,首先得到测速雷达双通道的应答数据,然后通过改进的非线性滤波+机动模型算法对火箭上升段外弹道测量数据进行高精度融合。最后采用仿真数据对传统方法和新方法的外弹道融合精度进行了比对分析。该方法的应用可有效提高测速雷达测元利用率和载人航天任务火箭上升段外弹道精度,具有较强的工程应用价值。     

Sensor systems signal processing platform

A field programmable gate array-based computing platform for high-speed sensors such as short-range radars is presented. The circuit performs necessary A/D conversions, raw data stream compression and target detection, and constructs a message structure suitable for external displays. In the prototype, USB is the connecting path to a laptop computer. An elementary pulse radar is utilized as an application example. An application interest would be in collision avoidance systems. Observed data transfer rates with real radar input signals were 36 Mbytes/s when typical target detection algorithms were applied.     

Radar Signature of a Helicopter Illuminated by a Long LFM Signal

Helicopters exhibit a very particular Doppler radar signature caused by the movement of rotor blades. This signature can easily be derived using a short-time approximation: the blades are assumed to be static during each pulse. In wideband linear frequency modulated (LFM) radars, however, this assumption cannot be made. The work presented here describes the echo of rotary blades illuminated by LFM radars without the short-time assumption and provides useful information for detection and recognition purposes.     

Reacting to new air defence threats: a netcentric approach to the Hungarian air defence system augmented by VHF radars

Different types of distributed radar systems and data fusion centers are increasingly used by surface-based air defense systems. Besides the well-established airborne threats, new platforms for air surveillance and attacking devices have appeared and recognized air picture (RAP) production needs to be revised and modified following the events of September 11, 2001. From a military operational and logistic support point of view, it is well-known that not only the long range radars currently in operation, but also the recently procured radars, degrade in performance rapidly and their maintenance costs are high. Using the possibilities offered by emerging technical developments, the problem is to upgrade sensors and existing infrastructure in a way that exploits the information gathered optimally. It is the opinion of this author that one of the most promising approaches to emphasis net-centricity is the use of radar-triangle netcentric structures augmented by netted VHF radars to solve these tasks in a cost-effective manner. This work introduces an analysis of a solution that fully integrates newly required capabilities into the current long range radar net and infrastructure, keeping research and development (R&D) and maintenance at a low cost.     

Space Weather Research in China

Recent progress in space weather research are briefly presented here from three aspects: establishment or improvement in observation systems, such as extra-soft X-ray detector and γ-ray detector onboard the spacecraft ‘Shen Zhou 2’, new solar radio broad-band spectrometer, magnetometer-chain, ionosonde and digisonde–chain, laser-lidar system and VHF radar; partial topic progresses included in CMEs, multi-streamer structures, evolution of interplanetary magnetic field B _z component, regional properties of traveling ionospheric disturbances, a fully-nonlinear global dynamical model for the middle and upper atmosphere, and a combined prediction method for geomagnetic disturbances; and space weather activity, such as ‘Meridian Project’ — a national major scientific project, ‘International Space Weather Meridian Circle Program’ — a suggestion of internationalization of ‘Meridian Project’, ‘Space Weather Research Plan’ — a major research plan from National Natural Science Foundation of China (NNSFC) and other space weather activities. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Reduced-rank STAP for high PRF radar

Due to the range ambiguity of high pulse-repetition frequency (HPRF) radars, echoes from far-range fold over near-range returns. This effect may cause low Doppler targets to compete with near-range strong clutter. Another consequence of the range ambiguity is that the sample support for estimating the array covariance matrix is reduced, leading to degraded performance. It is shown that space-time adaptive processing (STAP) techniques are required to reject the clutter in HPRF radar. Four STAP methods are studied in the context of the HPRF radar problem: low rank approximation sample matrix inversion (SMI), diagonally loaded SMI, eigencanceler, and element-space post-Doppler. These three methods are evaluated in typical HPRF radar scenarios and for various training conditions, including when the target is present in the training data     

基于遗传算法的多部测速雷达布站优化研究

通过部署于不同地点的多部无源多普勒测速雷达,可以对有辐射信号源的机动飞行目标进行跟踪测量,并且可以对目标位置和速度信息进行最佳估计。本文探讨了遗传算法在测速雷达布站优化中的使用方法,分析了误差传播矩阵,建立了简易目标函数,利用遗传算法对信标体制下的多普勒测速单站的布站几何进行了优化。