Distributed waveforms for networked meteorological radars

Abstract

Distributed waveforms for resolving ambiguities for Doppler weather radar systems are presented in this paper. The novel approach is a network-based technique where spatially distributed monostatic radars are used to mitigate ambiguities in the measurements. The networked waveform system offers many advantages. First, it decouples the range ambiguity and velocity ambiguity from each other, whereas range and velocity ambiguities are coupled together in a waveform for single radar. Second, the networked waveform can be designed to measure very high velocities without the need for complex waveforms and advanced processing at each radar node. This minimizes the computational load on each node. Third, it can be used with low cost transmitter that has limited ability to support complex waveforms as opposed to a significantly expensive single radar system with complex waveforms. Fourth, the networked waveform system can be designed to meet a specific requirement over the coverage region without being restricted by limitation of an individual radar node in the network. Fifth, the distributed waveform enables direct estimation of dealiased wind field, which is critical for kinematic analysis of storm structure. Based on the results obtained from simulation it is observed that distributed waveform can provide high unambiguous velocities. A distributed waveform was implemented with a four node radar network and preliminary results show that the networked approach is a viable solution.