Abstract
In this paper, we propose the analysis of the target detection performance of air-to-air airborne radars using long-range propagation simulations with a novel quad-linear refractivity model under abnormal atmospheric conditions. The radar propagation characteristics and the target detection performance are simulated using the Advanced Refractive Effects Prediction System (AREPS) software, where the refractivity along the altitude, array antenna pattern, and digital terrain elevation data are considered as inputs to obtain the path loss of the wave propagation. The quad-linear model is used to approximate the actual refractivity data, which are compared to the data derived using the conventional trilinear refractivity model. On the basis of the propagation simulations, we propose a detection performance metric in terms of the atmosphere (DPMA) for intuitively examining the long-range propagation characteristics of airborne radars in air-to-air situations. To confirm the feasibility of using the DPMA map in various duct scenarios, we employ two actual refractive indices to observe the DPMA results in relation to the height of the airborne radar.
Highlights
Recent dramatic advances in radar systems have resulted in the extensive use of a variety of long-range airborne radars, including active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars, synthetic aperture radars (SARs), and airborne early warning (AEW) radars [1,2,3,4,5,6]
The results demonstrate that the proposed method of analysis can intuitively determine the target detection performance of air-to-air airborne radars under abnormal atmospheric conditions
To more intuitively analyze the target detection performance, we propose a DPMA, which is defined as the ratio of the detectable area of the normal atmosphere to that of the abnormal atmosphere, as follows: DPMA =
Summary
Recent dramatic advances in radar systems have resulted in the extensive use of a variety of long-range airborne radars, including active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars, synthetic aperture radars (SARs), and airborne early warning (AEW) radars [1,2,3,4,5,6]. The gradient of the atmospheric refractive indices along the altitude usually changed by the temperature, atmospheric pressure, and dew-point temperature, causes the refraction of the wave propagation, that is, sub-, super-, normal-, and duct refraction These propagation characteristics make it difficult to estimate the long-range target position [8], and it is essential to model the atmospheric refractivity along the altitude to precisely predict the propagation direction, path loss, and propagation factor. We analyze the target detection performance of air-to-air airborne radars using long-range propagation simulations with a novel quad-linear refractivity model under abnormal atmospheric conditions. The results demonstrate that the proposed method of analysis can intuitively determine the target detection performance of air-to-air airborne radars under abnormal atmospheric conditions
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