Airborne Polarimetric Doppler Phased Array Weather Radar: Performance Requirements and Design Specifications

Jothiram Vivekanandan, Luis Perez-Clifford, Eric Loew, Adam Karboski

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Performancerequirements for an airborne weather radar are more stringent than ground-based radar. Since the airborne radar has only a limited time for collecting measurements over a specified region, phased array radar with active electronic scanning array (AESA) enables rapid scanning of the antenna beam for collecting high-temporal and spatial resolution, research quality Doppler and polarimetric radar measurements. In the case of an AESA, when a beam is steered electronically away from the broadside, the gain and beamwidth change as a function of scan angle and cross-coupling between dual-polarization sources occur. For a specified aperture size and solid-state amplifier, pulse compression is used to enhance the received signal's sensitivity. To achieve reasonable along-track spatial resolution, the use of beam multiplexing (BMX) is essential. Beam multiplexing reduces errors in radar measurements while providing rapid updates of scan volumes. A beamforming architecture that supports BMX, and highspeed serial interconnect for front-end signal processing is essential for PAR's optimal performance. This paper describes the engineering design specifications of an antenna, transmit waveform, and weather radar signal processing subsystems.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2020 IEEE Radar Conference, RadarConf 2020
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
ISBN (Electronic)9781728189420
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 21 2020
Event2020 IEEE Radar Conference, RadarConf 2020 - Florence, Italy
Duration: Sep 21 2020Sep 25 2020

Publication series

NameIEEE National Radar Conference - Proceedings
Volume2020-September
ISSN (Print)1097-5659

Conference

Conference2020 IEEE Radar Conference, RadarConf 2020
Country/TerritoryItaly
CityFlorence
Period09/21/2009/25/20

Keywords

  • architecture
  • beamforming
  • distortion
  • phased array
  • pulse compression
  • radar
  • radiation pattern
  • weather

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