WorldWideScience

Sample records for surface search radar

  1. Specification for a surface-search radar-detection-range model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hattan, Claude P.

    1990-09-01

    A model that predicts surface-search radar detection range versus a variety of combatants has been developed at the Naval Ocean Systems Center. This model uses a simplified ship radar cross section (RCS) model and the U.S. Navy Oceanographic and Atmospheric Mission Library Standard Electromagnetic Propagation Model. It provides the user with a method of assessing the effects of the environment of the performance of a surface-search radar system. The software implementation of the model is written in ANSI FORTRAN 77, with MIL-STD-1753 extensions. The program provides the user with a table of expected detection ranges when the model is supplied with the proper environmental radar system inputs. The target model includes the variation in RCS as a function of aspect angle and the distribution of reflected radar energy as a function of height above the waterline. The modeled propagation effects include refraction caused by a multisegmented refractivity profile, sea-surface roughness caused by local winds, evaporation ducting, and surface-based ducts caused by atmospheric layering.

  2. Radar search and detection with the CASA 212 S43 aircraft

    OpenAIRE

    Landa Borges, José Manuel

    2004-01-01

    Approved for public release; distribution in unlimited. This research develops a detection rate model to analyze the effectiveness of the RDR 1500B search radar installed in the CASA 212 S43 aircraft belonging to Venezuelan Naval Aviation. The model is based on a search and detection mission to find a diesel submarine executing an incursion inside the Venezuelan Caribbean Sea area, assumed to be intermittently operating with periscopes or masts exposed above the sea surface. The analysis o...

  3. Airborne Radar Search for Diesel Submarines

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Pilnick, Steven E; Landa, Jose

    2005-01-01

    .... In this research, a detection rate model is developed to analyze the effectiveness of airborne radar search for a diesel submarine assumed to be intermittently operating with periscopes or masts...

  4. Airborne Radar Search for Diesel Submarines (ARSDS)

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Pilnick, Steven E; Landa, Jose

    2005-01-01

    .... In this research, a detection rate model is developed to analyze the effectiveness of an airborne radar search for a diesel submarine assumed to be intermittently operating with periscopes or masts...

  5. Tabu search for target-radar assignment

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hindsberger, Magnus; Vidal, Rene Victor Valqui

    2000-01-01

    In the paper the problem of assigning air-defense illumination radars to enemy targets is presented. A tabu search metaheuristic solution is described and the results achieved are compared to those of other heuristic approaches, implementation and experimental aspects are discussed. It is argued ...

  6. Applications of Surface Penetrating Radar for Mars Exploration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, H.; Li, C.; Ran, S.; Feng, J.; Zuo, W.

    2015-12-01

    Surface Penetrating Radar (SPR) is a geophysical method that uses electromagnetic field probe the interior structure and lithological variations of a lossy dielectric materials, it performs quite well in dry, icy and shallow-soil environments. The first radar sounding of the subsurface of planet was carried out by Apollo Lunar Sounder Experiment (ALSE) of the Apollo 17 in 1972. ALSE provided very precise information about the moon's topography and revealed structures beneath the surface in both Mare Crisium and Mare Serenitatis. Russian Mars'92 was the first Mars exploration mission that tried to use SPR to explore martian surface, subsurface and ionosphere. Although Mars'96 launch failed in 1996, Russia(Mars'98, cancelled in 1998; Phobos-Grunt, launch failed in 2011), ESA(Mars Express, succeeded in 2003; Netlander, cancelled in 2003; ExoMars 2018) and NASA(MRO, succeeded in 2005; MARS 2020) have been making great effects to send SPR to Mars, trying to search for the existence of groundwater and life in the past 20 years. So far, no Ground Penetrating Radar(GPR) has yet provided in situ observations on the surface of Mars. In December 2013, China's CE-3 lunar rover (Yuto) equipped with a GPR made the first direct measurement of the structure and depth of the lunar soil, and investigation of the lunar crust structure along the rover path. China's Mars Exploration Program also plans to carry the orbiting radar sounder and rover GPR to characterize the nature of subsurface water or ices and the layered structure of shallow subsurface of Mars. SPR can provide diversity of applications for Mars exploration , that are: to map the distribution of solid and liquid water in the upper portions of the Mars' crust; to characterize the subsurface geologic environment; to investigate the planet's subsurface to better understand the evolution and habitability of Mars; to perform the martain ionosphere sounding. Based on SPR's history and achievements, combined with the

  7. Radar Search and Detection With the CASA 212 S43 Aircraft

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Borges, Jose M

    2004-01-01

    .... The model can use given periscope radar cross section data, or roughly calculate radar cross section given assumptions about exposed periscope height above the sea-surface and sea-state conditions. Submarine evasion due to radar counter-detection is also modeled.

  8. Surface return direction-of-arrival analysis for radar ice sounding surface clutter suppression

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Ulrik; Dall, Jørgen

    2015-01-01

    Airborne radar ice sounding is challenged by surface clutter masking the depth signal of interest. Surface clutter may even be prohibitive for potential space-based ice sounding radars. To some extent the radar antenna suppresses the surface clutter, and a multi-phase-center antenna in combination...... with coherent signal processing techniques can improve the suppression, in particular if the direction of arrival (DOA) of the clutter signal is estimated accurately. This paper deals with data-driven DOA estimation. By using P-band data from the ice shelf in Antarctica it is demonstrated that a varying...

  9. Navy Needs to Establish Effective Metrics to Achieve Desired Outcomes for SPY1 Radar Sustainment (Redacted)

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-08-01

    subsystems in the AEGIS Weapon System that searches, detects, and tracks air and surface targets to support Anti -Air Warfare and Ballistic Missile... System that searches, detects, and tracks air and surface targets to support Anti -Air Warfare and Ballistic Missile Defense missions. The SPY-1 radar...a series on SPY-1 radar spare parts. The SPY-1 radar is an advanced, automatic detect and track radar system . The SPY-1 radar is one of 13 major

  10. Reducing Surface Clutter in Cloud Profiling Radar Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tanelli, Simone; Pak, Kyung; Durden, Stephen; Im, Eastwood

    2008-01-01

    An algorithm has been devised to reduce ground clutter in the data products of the CloudSat Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR), which is a nadir-looking radar instrument, in orbit around the Earth, that measures power backscattered by clouds as a function of distance from the instrument. Ground clutter contaminates the CPR data in the lowest 1 km of the atmospheric profile, heretofore making it impossible to use CPR data to satisfy the scientific interest in studying clouds and light rainfall at low altitude. The algorithm is based partly on the fact that the CloudSat orbit is such that the geodetic altitude of the CPR varies continuously over a range of approximately 25 km. As the geodetic altitude changes, the radar timing parameters are changed at intervals defined by flight software in order to keep the troposphere inside a data-collection time window. However, within each interval, the surface of the Earth continuously "scans through" (that is, it moves across) a few range bins of the data time window. For each radar profile, only few samples [one for every range-bin increment ((Delta)r = 240 m)] of the surface-clutter signature are available around the range bin in which the peak of surface return is observed, but samples in consecutive radar profiles are offset slightly (by amounts much less than (Delta)r) with respect to each other according to the relative change in geodetic altitude. As a consequence, in a case in which the surface area under examination is homogenous (e.g., an ocean surface), a sequence of consecutive radar profiles of the surface in that area contains samples of the surface response with range resolution (Delta)p much finer than the range-bin increment ((Delta)p 10 dB and a reduction of the contaminated altitude over ocean from about 1 km to about 0.5 km (over the ocean). The algorithm has been embedded in CloudSat L1B processing as of Release 04 (July 2007), and the estimated flat surface clutter is removed in L2B-GEOPROF product from the

  11. Comparison of HF radar measurements with Eulerian and Lagrangian surface currents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Röhrs, Johannes; Sperrevik, Ann Kristin; Christensen, Kai Håkon; Broström, Göran; Breivik, Øyvind

    2015-05-01

    High-frequency (HF) radar-derived ocean currents are compared with in situ measurements to conclude if the radar observations include effects of surface waves that are of second order in the wave amplitude. Eulerian current measurements from a high-resolution acoustic Doppler current profiler and Lagrangian measurements from surface drifters are used as references. Directional wave spectra are obtained from a combination of pressure sensor data and a wave model. Our analysis shows that the wave-induced Stokes drift is not included in the HF radar-derived currents, that is, HF radars measure the Eulerian current. A disputed nonlinear correction to the phase velocity of surface gravity waves, which may affect HF radar signals, has a magnitude of about half the Stokes drift at the surface. In our case, this contribution by nonlinear dispersion would be smaller than the accuracy of the HF radar currents, hence no conclusion can be made. Finally, the analysis confirms that the HF radar data represent an exponentially weighted vertical average where the decay scale is proportional to the wavelength of the transmitted signal.

  12. Radar cross-section (RCS) analysis of high frequency surface wave radar targets

    OpenAIRE

    ÇAKIR, Gonca; SEVGİ, Levent

    2010-01-01

    Realistic high frequency surface wave radar (HFSWR) targets are investigated numerically in terms of electromagnetic wave -- target interactions. Radar cross sections (RCS) of these targets are simulated via both the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method and the Method of Moments (MoM). The virtual RCS prediction tool that was introduced in previous work is used for these investigations. The virtual tool automatically creates the discrete FDTD model of the target under investi...

  13. Surface Roughness of the Moon Derived from Multi-frequency Radar Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fa, W.

    2011-12-01

    Surface roughness of the Moon provides important information concerning both significant questions about lunar surface processes and engineering constrains for human outposts and rover trafficabillity. Impact-related phenomena change the morphology and roughness of lunar surface, and therefore surface roughness provides clues to the formation and modification mechanisms of impact craters. Since the Apollo era, lunar surface roughness has been studied using different approaches, such as direct estimation from lunar surface digital topographic relief, and indirect analysis of Earth-based radar echo strengths. Submillimeter scale roughness at Apollo landing sites has been studied by computer stereophotogrammetry analysis of Apollo Lunar Surface Closeup Camera (ALSCC) pictures, whereas roughness at meter to kilometer scale has been studied using laser altimeter data from recent missions. Though these studies shown lunar surface roughness is scale dependent that can be described by fractal statistics, roughness at centimeter scale has not been studied yet. In this study, lunar surface roughnesses at centimeter scale are investigated using Earth-based 70 cm Arecibo radar data and miniature synthetic aperture radar (Mini-SAR) data at S- and X-band (with wavelengths 12.6 cm and 4.12 cm). Both observations and theoretical modeling show that radar echo strengths are mostly dominated by scattering from the surface and shallow buried rocks. Given the different penetration depths of radar waves at these frequencies (< 30 m for 70 cm wavelength, < 3 m at S-band, and < 1 m at X-band), radar echo strengths at S- and X-band will yield surface roughness directly, whereas radar echo at 70-cm will give an upper limit of lunar surface roughness. The integral equation method is used to model radar scattering from the rough lunar surface, and dielectric constant of regolith and surface roughness are two dominate factors. The complex dielectric constant of regolith is first estimated

  14. Near-surface bulk densities of asteroids derived from dual-polarization radar observations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Virkki, A.; Taylor, P. A.; Zambrano-Marin, L. F.; Howell, E. S.; Nolan, M. C.; Lejoly, C.; Rivera-Valentin, E. G.; Aponte, B. A.

    2017-09-01

    We present a new method to constrain the near-surface bulk density and surface roughness of regolith on asteroid surfaces using planetary radar measurements. The number of radar observations has increased rapidly during the last five years, allowing us to compare and contrast the radar scattering properties of different small-body populations and compositional types. This provides us with new opportunities to investigate their near-surface physical properties such as the chemical composition, bulk density, porosity, or the structural roughness in the scale of centimeters to meters. Because the radar signal can penetrate into a planetary surface up to a few decimeters, radar can reveal information that is hidden from other ground-based methods, such as optical and infrared measurements. The near-surface structure of asteroids and comets in centimeter-to-meter scale is essential information for robotic and human space missions, impact threat mitigation, and understanding the history of these bodies as well as the formation of the whole Solar System.

  15. Hardware in the loop testing and evaluation of seaborne search radars

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Strydom, JJ

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available for independent testing and evaluation of radar systems. The CSIR digital radio frequency memory (DRFM) hardware technology is used as the basis of these test systems. DRFM's are traditionally used for EW applications, but processing power of field programmable... environment simulation (RES) on digital radio frequency memory (DRFM) platforms can be utilised to test the performance of a search radar in a sea clutter Y ra n ge X r a n g e S h a p e p a r a m e t e r 0 1 2 3 4 x 1 0 4 - 3 - 2 - 1...

  16. HF Surface Wave Radar Operation in Adverse Conditions

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Ponsford, Anthony M; Dizaji, Reza M; McKerracher, Richard

    2005-01-01

    ...) system based on HF Surface Wave Radar (HFSWR). the primary objective behind the programme was to demonstrate the capability of HFSWR to continuously detect and track surface targets (ships and icebergs...

  17. Radar detection of ultra high energy cosmic rays

    Science.gov (United States)

    Myers, Isaac J.

    TARA (Telescope Array Radar) is a cosmic ray radar detection experiment co-located with Telescope Array, the conventional surface scintillation detector (SD) and fluorescence telescope detector (FD) near Delta, UT. The TARA detector combines a 40 kW transmitter and high gain transmitting antenna which broadcasts the radar carrier over the SD array and in the FD field of view to a 250 MS/s DAQ receiver. Data collection began in August, 2013. TARA stands apart from other cosmic ray radar experiments in that radar data is directly compared with conventional cosmic ray detector events. The transmitter is also directly controlled by TARA researchers. Waveforms from the FD-triggered data stream are time-matched with TA events and searched for signal using a novel signal search technique in which the expected (simulated) radar echo of a particular air shower is used as a matched filter template and compared to radio waveforms. This technique is used to calculate the radar cross-section (RCS) upper-limit on all triggers that correspond to well-reconstructed TA FD monocular events. Our lowest cosmic ray RCS upper-limit is 42 cm2 for an 11 EeV event. An introduction to cosmic rays is presented with the evolution of detection and the necessity of new detection techniques, of which radar detection is a candidate. The software simulation of radar scattering from cosmic rays follows. The TARA detector, including transmitter and receiver systems, are discussed in detail. Our search algorithm and methodology for calculating RCS is presented for the purpose of being repeatable. Search results are explained in context of the usefulness and future of cosmic ray radar detection.

  18. Mars Express radar collects first surface data

    Science.gov (United States)

    2005-08-01

    This radar started its science operations on 4 July, the same day as its first commissioning phase ended. Due to the late deployment of Marsis, it was decided to split the commissioning, originally planned to last four weeks, into two phases; the second will take place in December. It has thus been possible to begin scientific observations with the instrument earlier than initially planned, while it is still Martian night-time. This is the best environmental condition for subsurface sounding, as in daytime the ionosphere is more ‘energised’ and disturbs the radio signals used for subsurface observations. As from the start of commissioning, the two 20m-long antenna booms have been sending radio signals towards the Martian surface and receiving echoes back. “The commissioning procedure confirmed that the radar is working very well and that it can be operated at full power without interfering with any of the spacecraft systems,” says Roberto Seu, Instrument Manager for Marsis, of University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, Italy. Marsis is a very complex instrument, capable of operating at different frequency bands. Lower frequencies are best suited to probing the subsurface, the highest frequencies are used to probe shallow subsurface depths, while all frequencies are suited to studying the surface and the upper atmospheric layer of Mars. “During commissioning we worked to test all transmission modes and optimise the radar's performance around Mars,” says Professor Giovanni Picardi, Principal Investigator for Marsis, of University of Rome ‘LaSapienza’. “The result is that since we started the scientific observations in early July, we have been receiving very clean surface echoes back, and first indications about the ionosphere.” The Marsis radar is designed to operate around the orbit ‘pericentre’, when the spacecraft is closer to the planet’s surface. In each orbit, the radar is switched on for 36minutes around this point, spending the middle 26

  19. Combined Radar-Radiometer Surface Soil Moisture and Roughness Estimation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Akbar, Ruzbeh; Cosh, Michael H.; O'Neill, Peggy E.; Entekhabi, Dara; Moghaddam, Mahta

    2017-01-01

    A robust physics-based combined radar-radiometer, or Active-Passive, surface soil moisture and roughness estimation methodology is presented. Soil moisture and roughness retrieval is performed via optimization, i.e., minimization, of a joint objective function which constrains similar resolution radar and radiometer observations simultaneously. A data-driven and noise-dependent regularization term has also been developed to automatically regularize and balance corresponding radar and radiometer contributions to achieve optimal soil moisture retrievals. It is shown that in order to compensate for measurement and observation noise, as well as forward model inaccuracies, in combined radar-radiometer estimation surface roughness can be considered a free parameter. Extensive Monte-Carlo numerical simulations and assessment using field data have been performed to both evaluate the algorithms performance and to demonstrate soil moisture estimation. Unbiased root mean squared errors (RMSE) range from 0.18 to 0.03 cm3cm3 for two different land cover types of corn and soybean. In summary, in the context of soil moisture retrieval, the importance of consistent forward emission and scattering development is discussed and presented.

  20. A New Empirical Model for Radar Scattering from Bare Soil Surfaces

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nicolas Baghdadi

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available The objective of this paper is to propose a new semi-empirical radar backscattering model for bare soil surfaces based on the Dubois model. A wide dataset of backscattering coefficients extracted from synthetic aperture radar (SAR images and in situ soil surface parameter measurements (moisture content and roughness is used. The retrieval of soil parameters from SAR images remains challenging because the available backscattering models have limited performances. Existing models, physical, semi-empirical, or empirical, do not allow for a reliable estimate of soil surface geophysical parameters for all surface conditions. The proposed model, developed in HH, HV, and VV polarizations, uses a formulation of radar signals based on physical principles that are validated in numerous studies. Never before has a backscattering model been built and validated on such an important dataset as the one proposed in this study. It contains a wide range of incidence angles (18°–57° and radar wavelengths (L, C, X, well distributed, geographically, for regions with different climate conditions (humid, semi-arid, and arid sites, and involving many SAR sensors. The results show that the new model shows a very good performance for different radar wavelengths (L, C, X, incidence angles, and polarizations (RMSE of about 2 dB. This model is easy to invert and could provide a way to improve the retrieval of soil parameters.

  1. Accuracy of three-dimensional glacier surface volocities derived from radar interfeometry and ice-soundin radar measurements

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mohr, Johan Jacob; Reeh, Niels; Madsen, Søren Nørvang

    2003-01-01

    We present a method for analyzing the errors involved in measuring three-dimensional glacier velocities with interferometric radar. We address the surface-parallel flow assumption and an augmented approach with a flux-divergence (FD) term. The errors in an interferometric ERS-1/-2 satellite radar...... dataset with ascending- and descending-orbit data covering Storstrommen glacier, northeast Greenland, are assessed. The FD error assessment is carried out on airborne 60 MHz ice-sounding radar data from the same area. A simple model of an interferometric radar system is developed and analyzed. The error...... sources considered include phase noise, atmospheric distortions, baseline calibration errors, a dry snow layer, and the stationary-flow assumption used in differential interferometry. The additional error sources in the analysis of FD errors are noise, bias and unknown variations of the ice thickness...

  2. Parameter Search Algorithms for Microwave Radar-Based Breast Imaging: Focal Quality Metrics as Fitness Functions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Loughlin, Declan; Oliveira, Bárbara L; Elahi, Muhammad Adnan; Glavin, Martin; Jones, Edward; Popović, Milica; O'Halloran, Martin

    2017-12-06

    Inaccurate estimation of average dielectric properties can have a tangible impact on microwave radar-based breast images. Despite this, recent patient imaging studies have used a fixed estimate although this is known to vary from patient to patient. Parameter search algorithms are a promising technique for estimating the average dielectric properties from the reconstructed microwave images themselves without additional hardware. In this work, qualities of accurately reconstructed images are identified from point spread functions. As the qualities of accurately reconstructed microwave images are similar to the qualities of focused microscopic and photographic images, this work proposes the use of focal quality metrics for average dielectric property estimation. The robustness of the parameter search is evaluated using experimental dielectrically heterogeneous phantoms on the three-dimensional volumetric image. Based on a very broad initial estimate of the average dielectric properties, this paper shows how these metrics can be used as suitable fitness functions in parameter search algorithms to reconstruct clear and focused microwave radar images.

  3. A diffuse radar scattering model from Martian surface rocks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Calvin, W. M.; Jakosky, B. M.; Christensen, P. R.

    1987-01-01

    Remote sensing of Mars has been done with a variety of instrumentation at various wavelengths. Many of these data sets can be reconciled with a surface model of bonded fines (or duricrust) which varies widely across the surface and a surface rock distribution which varies less so. A surface rock distribution map from -60 to +60 deg latitude has been generated by Christensen. Our objective is to model the diffuse component of radar reflection based on this surface distribution of rocks. The diffuse, rather than specular, scattering is modeled because the diffuse component arises due to scattering from rocks with sizes on the order of the wavelength of the radar beam. Scattering for radio waves of 12.5 cm is then indicative of the meter scale and smaller structure of the surface. The specular term is indicative of large scale surface undulations and should not be causally related to other surface physical properties. A simplified model of diffuse scattering is described along with two rock distribution models. The results of applying the models to a planet of uniform fractional rock coverage with values ranging from 5 to 20% are discussed.

  4. Searching for Survivors through Random Human-Body Movement Outdoors by Continuous-Wave Radar Array.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Chuantao; Chen, Fuming; Qi, Fugui; Liu, Miao; Li, Zhao; Liang, Fulai; Jing, Xijing; Lu, Guohua; Wang, Jianqi

    2016-01-01

    It is a major challenge to search for survivors after chemical or nuclear leakage or explosions. At present, biological radar can be used to achieve this goal by detecting the survivor's respiration signal. However, owing to the random posture of an injured person at a rescue site, the radar wave may directly irradiate the person's head or feet, in which it is difficult to detect the respiration signal. This paper describes a multichannel-based antenna array technology, which forms an omnidirectional detection system via 24-GHz Doppler biological radar, to address the random positioning relative to the antenna of an object to be detected. Furthermore, since the survivors often have random body movement such as struggling and twitching, the slight movements of the body caused by breathing are obscured by these movements. Therefore, a method is proposed to identify random human-body movement by utilizing multichannel information to calculate the background variance of the environment in combination with a constant-false-alarm-rate detector. The conducted outdoor experiments indicate that the system can realize the omnidirectional detection of random human-body movement and distinguish body movement from environmental interference such as movement of leaves and grass. The methods proposed in this paper will be a promising way to search for survivors outdoors.

  5. Java Radar Analysis Tool

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zaczek, Mariusz P.

    2005-01-01

    Java Radar Analysis Tool (JRAT) is a computer program for analyzing two-dimensional (2D) scatter plots derived from radar returns showing pieces of the disintegrating Space Shuttle Columbia. JRAT can also be applied to similar plots representing radar returns showing aviation accidents, and to scatter plots in general. The 2D scatter plots include overhead map views and side altitude views. The superposition of points in these views makes searching difficult. JRAT enables three-dimensional (3D) viewing: by use of a mouse and keyboard, the user can rotate to any desired viewing angle. The 3D view can include overlaid trajectories and search footprints to enhance situational awareness in searching for pieces. JRAT also enables playback: time-tagged radar-return data can be displayed in time order and an animated 3D model can be moved through the scene to show the locations of the Columbia (or other vehicle) at the times of the corresponding radar events. The combination of overlays and playback enables the user to correlate a radar return with a position of the vehicle to determine whether the return is valid. JRAT can optionally filter single radar returns, enabling the user to selectively hide or highlight a desired radar return.

  6. Effects of surface roughness on sea ice freeboard retrieval with an Airborne Ku-Band SAR radar altimeter

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hendricks, Stefan; Stenseng, Lars; Helm, Veit

    2010-01-01

    to investigate sea ice volume changes on an Arctic wide scale. Freeboard retrieval requires precise radar range measurements to the ice surface, therefore we investigate the penetration of the Ku-Band radar waves into the overlying snow cover as well as the effects of sub-footprint-scale surface roughness using...... airborne radar and laser altimeters. We find regional variable penetration of the radar signal at late spring conditions, where the difference of the radar and the reference laser range measurement never agrees with the expected snow thickness. In addition, a rough surface can lead to biases...

  7. Searching for Survivors through Random Human-Body Movement Outdoors by Continuous-Wave Radar Array

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Miao; Li, Zhao; Liang, Fulai; Jing, Xijing; Lu, Guohua; Wang, Jianqi

    2016-01-01

    It is a major challenge to search for survivors after chemical or nuclear leakage or explosions. At present, biological radar can be used to achieve this goal by detecting the survivor’s respiration signal. However, owing to the random posture of an injured person at a rescue site, the radar wave may directly irradiate the person’s head or feet, in which it is difficult to detect the respiration signal. This paper describes a multichannel-based antenna array technology, which forms an omnidirectional detection system via 24-GHz Doppler biological radar, to address the random positioning relative to the antenna of an object to be detected. Furthermore, since the survivors often have random body movement such as struggling and twitching, the slight movements of the body caused by breathing are obscured by these movements. Therefore, a method is proposed to identify random human-body movement by utilizing multichannel information to calculate the background variance of the environment in combination with a constant-false-alarm-rate detector. The conducted outdoor experiments indicate that the system can realize the omnidirectional detection of random human-body movement and distinguish body movement from environmental interference such as movement of leaves and grass. The methods proposed in this paper will be a promising way to search for survivors outdoors. PMID:27073860

  8. RMS slope of exponentially correlated surface roughness for radar applications

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dierking, Wolfgang

    2000-01-01

    In radar signature analysis, the root mean square (RMS) surface slope is utilized to assess the relative contribution of multiple scattering effects. For an exponentially correlated surface, an effective RMS slope can be determined by truncating the high frequency tail of the roughness spectrum...

  9. Surface current measurements in Juan de Fuca Strait using the SeaSonde HF [high frequency] radar

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hodgins, D.O.

    1994-09-01

    The shore-based SeaSonde high-frequency (HF) radar was deployed for three weeks in summer 1993 to measure surface currents in the Strait of Georgia, British Columbia. Experimental objectives included documenting the complex flow regime generated by large tides and the brackish plume of the Fraser River, and determining the radar performance under low-wind, low-salinity conditions. The radar data showed that surface flows are dominated by the plume jet formed by the Fraser River outflow, giving rise to recurring, energetic eddies with scales of 8-12 km, strong flow meanders, and convergent fronts. These features were continuously modulated by the along-channel tidal flows. Comparisons with a detailed numerical model hindcast gave good correlation between observed and predicted flow fields, especially at tidal and low frequencies. Radar return was found to be correlated with local winds and radar performance was independent of salinity variations in the plume. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) provides a map of the radar scattering characteristics of the ocean surface on a capillary wave scale. ERS-1 satellite and airborne SAR images for July 28, 1993 were obtained and surface features were examined in the context of the HF radar current fields. Results show that SAR images alone cannot reliably provide the dynamical data required in this region by oil spill models. Under certain conditions, however, the radar imagery offers valuable physical information on phenomena affecting oil slick development. Interpretation of SAR imagery in conjunction with other remote sensing information would offer more quantitative prediction data. 28 refs., 334 figs., 1 tab

  10. Coherent Surface Clutter Suppression Techniques with Topography Estimation for Multi-Phase-Center Radar Ice Sounding

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Ulrik; Dall, Jørgen; Kristensen, Steen Savstrup

    2012-01-01

    Radar ice sounding enables measurement of the thickness and internal structures of the large ice sheets on Earth. Surface clutter masking the signal of interest is a major obstacle in ice sounding. Algorithms for surface clutter suppression based on multi-phase-center radars are presented. These ...

  11. Quantitative roughness characterization of geological surfaces and implications for radar signature analysis

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dierking, Wolfgang

    1999-01-01

    Stochastic surface models are useful for analyzing in situ roughness profiles and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images of geological terrain. In this paper, two different surface models are discussed: surfaces with a stationary random roughness (conventional model) and surfaces with a power...

  12. Remote Sensing of Surface Soil Moisture using Semi-Concurrent Radar and Radiometer Observations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, L.; Ouellette, J. D.; Colliander, A.; Cosh, M. H.; Caldwell, T. G.; Walker, J. P.

    2017-12-01

    Radar backscatter and radiometer brightness temperature both have well-documented sensitivity to surface soil moisture, particularly in the microwave regime. While radiometer-derived soil moisture retrievals have been shown to be stable and accurate, they are only available at coarse spatial resolutions on the order of tens of kilometers. Backscatter from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is similarly sensitive to soil moisture but can yield higher spatial resolutions, with pixel sizes about an order of magnitude smaller. Soil moisture retrieval from radar backscatter is more difficult, however, due to the combined sensitivity of radar scattering to surface roughness, vegetation structure, and soil moisture. The algorithm uses a time-series of SAR data to retrieval soil moisture information, constraining the SAR-derived soil moisture estimates with radiometer observations. This effectively combines the high spatial resolution offered by SAR with the precision offered by passive radiometry. The algorithm is a change detection approach which maps changes in the radar backscatter to changes in surface soil moisture. This new algorithm differs from existing retrieval techniques in that it does not require ancillary vegetation information, but assumes vegetation and surface roughness are stable between pairs of consecutive radar overpasses. Furthermore, this method does not require a radar scattering model for the vegetation canopy, nor the use of a training data set. The algorithm works over a long time series, and is constrained by hard bounds which are defined using a coarse-resolution radiometer soil moisture product. The presentation will include soil moisture retrievals from Soil Moisture Active/Passive (SMAP) SAR data. Two sets of optimization bounds will constrain the radar change detection algorithm: one defined by SMAP radiometer retrievals and one defined by WindSat radiometer retrievals. Retrieved soil moisture values will be presented on a world map and will

  13. Impact of the Tactical Picture Quality on the Fire Control Radar Search-Lock-On Time

    Science.gov (United States)

    2006-09-01

    theory terminology). It is required to grade the benefits from the different possible actions so that an optimal solution can be chosen. For instance, in...the fire control radar search-lock-on time (U) 4. AUTEURS (Nom de famille, prénom et initiales. Indiquer les grades militaires, ex.: Bleau, Maj

  14. Surface current dynamics under sea breeze conditions observed by simultaneous HF radar, ADCP and drifter measurements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sentchev, Alexei; Forget, Philippe; Fraunié, Philippe

    2017-04-01

    Ocean surface boundary layer dynamics off the southern coast of France in the NW Mediterranean is investigated by using velocity observations by high-frequency (HF) radars, surface drifting buoys and a downward-looking drifting acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP). The analysis confirms that velocities measured by HF radars correspond to those observed by an ADCP at the effective depth z f = k -1, where k is wavenumber of the radio wave emitted by the radar. The radials provided by the radars were in a very good agreement with in situ measurements, with the relative errors of 1 and 9 % and root mean square (RMS) differences of 0.02 and 0.04 m/s for monostatic and bistatic radar, respectively. The total radar-based velocities appeared to be slightly underestimated in magnitude and somewhat biased in direction. At the end of the survey period, the difference in the surface current direction, based on HF radar and ADCP data, attained 10°. It was demonstrated that the surface boundary layer dynamics cannot be reconstructed successfully without taking into the account velocity variation with depth. A significant misalignment of ˜30° caused by the sea breeze was documented between the HF radar (HFR-derived) surface current and the background current. It was also found that the ocean response to a moderate wind forcing was confined to the 4-m-thick upper layer. The respective Ekman current attained the maximum value of 0.15 m/s, and the current rotation was found to be lagging the wind by approximately 40 min, with the current vector direction being 15-20° to the left of the wind. The range of velocity variability due to wind forcing was found comparable with the magnitude of the background current variability.

  15. Surface Current Measurements In Terra Nova Bay By Hf Radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Flocco, D.; Falco, P.; Wadhams, P.; Spezie, G.

    We present the preliminary results of a field experiment carried out within frame- work of the CLIMA project of the Italian National Programme for Antarctic Research (PNRA) and in cooperation with the Scott Polar Research Institute of Cambridge. Dur- ing the second period (02/12/1999-23/01/2000) of the XV Italian expedition a coastal radar was used to characterize the current field in the area of Terra Nova Bay (TNB). One of the aims of the CLIMA (Climatic Long-term Interactions for the Mass balance in Antarctica) project is to determine the role of the polynya in the sea ice mass bal- ance, water structure and local climate. The OSCR-II experiment was planned in order to provide surface current measurements in the area of TNB polynya, one of the most important coastal polynya of the Ross Sea. OSCR (Ocean Surface Current Radar) is a shore based, remote sensing system designed to measure sea surface currents in coastal waters. Two radar sites (a master and a slave) provide with radial current mea- surements; data combined from both sites yield the total current vector. Unfortunately the master and slave stations did not work together throughout the whole period of the experiment. A description of the experiment and a discussion of the results, will be proposed.

  16. Surface-Assisted Dynamic Search Processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shin, Jaeoh; Kolomeisky, Anatoly B

    2018-03-01

    Many chemical and biological systems exhibit intermittent search phenomena when participating particles alternate between dynamic regimes with different dimensionalities. Here we investigate theoretically a dynamic search process of finding a small target on a two-dimensional surface starting from a bulk solution, which is an example of such an intermittent search process. Both continuum and discrete-state stochastic descriptions are developed. It is found that depending on the scanning length λ, which describes the area visited by the reacting molecule during one search cycle, the system can exhibit three different search regimes: (i) For small λ values, the reactant finds the target mostly via three-dimensional bulk diffusion; (ii) for large λ values, the reactant molecule associates to the target mostly via surface diffusion; and (iii) for intermediate λ values, the reactant reaches the target via a combination of three-dimensional and two-dimensional search cycles. Our analysis also shows that the mean search times have different scalings as a function of the size of the surface segment depending on the nature of the dynamic search regime. Search dynamics are also sensitive to the position of the target for large scanning lengths. In addition, it is argued that the continuum description underestimates mean search times and does not always correctly describe the most optimal conditions for the surface-assisted dynamic processes. The importance of our findings for real natural systems is discussed.

  17. Radar studies of the planets. [radar measurements of lunar surface, Mars, Mercury, and Venus

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ingalls, R. P.; Pettengill, G. H.; Rogers, A. E. E.; Sebring, P. B. (Editor); Shapiro, I. I.

    1974-01-01

    The radar measurements phase of the lunar studies involving reflectivity and topographic mapping of the visible lunar surface was ended in December 1972, but studies of the data and production of maps have continued. This work was supported by Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston. Topographic mapping of the equatorial regions of Mars has been carried out during the period of each opposition since that of 1967. The method comprised extended precise traveling time measurements to a small area centered on the subradar point. As measurements continued, planetary motions caused this point to sweep out extensive areas in both latitude and longitude permitting the development of a fairly extensive topographical map in the equatorial region. Radar observations of Mercury and Venus have also been made over the past few years. Refinements of planetary motions, reflectivity maps and determinations of rotation rates have resulted.

  18. Integrating Satellite, Radar and Surface Observation with Time and Space Matching

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ho, Y.; Weber, J.

    2015-12-01

    The Integrated Data Viewer (IDV) from Unidata is a Java™-based software framework for analyzing and visualizing geoscience data. It brings together the ability to display and work with satellite imagery, gridded data, surface observations, balloon soundings, NWS WSR-88D Level II and Level III RADAR data, and NOAA National Profiler Network data, all within a unified interface. Applying time and space matching on the satellite, radar and surface observation datasets will automatically synchronize the display from different data sources and spatially subset to match the display area in the view window. These features allow the IDV users to effectively integrate these observations and provide 3 dimensional views of the weather system to better understand the underlying dynamics and physics of weather phenomena.

  19. Search-Lidar Demonstrator for Detection of Small Sea-Surface Targets

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Heuvel, J.C. van den; Bekman, H.H.P.T.; Putten, F.J.M. van; Cohen, L.H.; Schleijpen, H.M.A.

    2008-01-01

    Coastal surveillance and naval operations in the littoral both have to deal with the threat of small sea-surface targets. These targets have a low radar cross-section and a low velocity that makes them hard to detect by radar. Typical threats include jet skis, FIAC’s, and speedboats. Lidar

  20. Detection of Small Sea-Surface Targets with a Search Lidar

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Heuvel, J.C. van den; Bekman, H.H.P.T.; Putten, F.J.M.; Cohen, L.A.

    2007-01-01

    Naval operations in the littoral have to deal with the threat of small sea-surface targets. These targets have a low radar cross-section and low velocity, which makes them hard to detect by radar in the presence of sea clutter. Typical threats include periscopes, jet skies, FIAC’s, and speedboats.

  1. Mars radar clutter and surface roughness characteristics from MARSIS data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Campbell, Bruce A.; Schroeder, Dustin M.; Whitten, Jennifer L.

    2018-01-01

    Radar sounder studies of icy, sedimentary, and volcanic settings can be affected by reflections from surface topography surrounding the sensor nadir location. These off-nadir ;clutter; returns appear at similar time delays to subsurface echoes and complicate geologic interpretation. Additionally, broadening of the radar echo in delay by surface returns sets a limit on the detectability of subsurface interfaces. We use MARSIS 4 MHz data to study variations in the nadir and off-nadir clutter echoes, from about 300 km to 1000 km altitude, R, for a wide range of surface roughness. This analysis uses a new method of characterizing ionospheric attenuation to merge observations over a range of solar zenith angle and date. Mirror-like reflections should scale as R-2, but the observed 4 MHz nadir echoes often decline by a somewhat smaller power-law factor because MARSIS on-board processing increases the number of summed pulses with altitude. Prior predictions of the contributions from clutter suggest a steeper decline with R than the nadir echoes, but in very rough areas the ratio of off-nadir returns to nadir echoes shows instead an increase of about R1/2 with altitude. This is likely due in part to an increase in backscatter from the surface as the radar incidence angle at some round-trip time delay declines with increasing R. It is possible that nadir and clutter echo properties in other planetary sounding observations, including RIME and REASON flyby data for Europa, will vary in the same way with altitude, but there may be differences in the nature and scale of target roughness (e.g., icy versus rocky surfaces). We present global maps of the ionosphere- and altitude-corrected nadir echo strength, and of a ;clutter; parameter based on the ratio of off-nadir to nadir echoes. The clutter map offers a view of surface roughness at ∼75 m length scale, bridging the spatial-scale gap between SHARAD roughness estimates and MOLA-derived parameters.

  2. Standard Deviation of Spatially-Averaged Surface Cross Section Data from the TRMM Precipitation Radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meneghini, Robert; Jones, Jeffrey A.

    2010-01-01

    We investigate the spatial variability of the normalized radar cross section of the surface (NRCS or Sigma(sup 0)) derived from measurements of the TRMM Precipitation Radar (PR) for the period from 1998 to 2009. The purpose of the study is to understand the way in which the sample standard deviation of the Sigma(sup 0) data changes as a function of spatial resolution, incidence angle, and surface type (land/ocean). The results have implications regarding the accuracy by which the path integrated attenuation from precipitation can be inferred by the use of surface scattering properties.

  3. Electrical properties of Titan's surface from Cassini RADAR scatterometer measurements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wye, Lauren C.; Zebker, Howard A.; Ostro, Steven J.; West, Richard D.; Gim, Yonggyu; Lorenz, Ralph D.; The Cassini Radar Team

    2007-06-01

    We report regional-scale low-resolution backscatter images of Titan's surface acquired by the Cassini RADAR scatterometer at a wavelength of 2.18-cm. We find that the average angular dependence of the backscatter from large regions and from specific surface features is consistent with a model composed of a quasi-specular Hagfors term plus a diffuse cosine component. A Gaussian quasi-specular term also fits the data, but less well than the Hagfors term. We derive values for the mean dielectric constant and root-mean-square (rms) slope of the surface from the quasi-specular term, which we ascribe to scattering from the surface interface only. The diffuse term accommodates contributions from volume scattering, multiple scattering, or wavelength-scale near-surface structure. The Hagfors model results imply a surface with regional mean dielectric constants between 1.9 and 3.6 and regional surface roughness that varies between 5.3° and 13.4° in rms-slope. Dielectric constants between 2 and 3 are expected for a surface composed of solid simple hydrocarbons, water ice, or a mixture of both. Smaller dielectric constants, between 1.6 and 1.9, are consistent with liquid hydrocarbons, while larger dielectric constants, near 4.5, may indicate the presence of water-ammonia ice [Lorenz, R.D., 1998. Icarus 136, 344-348] or organic heteropolymers [Thompson, W.R., Squyres, S.W., 1990. Icarus 86, 336-354]. We present backscatter images corrected for angular effects using the model residuals, which show strong features that correspond roughly to those in 0.94-μm ISS images. We model the localized backscatter from specific features to estimate dielectric constant and rms slope when the angular coverage is within the quasi-specular part of the backscatter curve. Only two apparent surface features are scanned with angular coverage sufficient for accurate modeling. Data from the bright albedo feature Quivira suggests a dielectric constant near 2.8 and rms slope near 10.1°. The dark

  4. SIMULATION OF THE Ku-BAND RADAR ALTIMETER SEA ICE EFFECTIVE SCATTERING SURFACE

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tonboe, Rasmus; Andersen, Søren; Pedersen, Leif Toudal

    2006-01-01

    A radiative transfer model is used to simulate the sea ice radar altimeter effective scattering surface variability as a function of snow depth and density. Under dry snow conditions without layering these are the primary snow parameters affecting the scattering surface variability. The model is ...

  5. Reconstruction of the sea surface elevation from the analysis of the data collected by a wave radar system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ludeno, Giovanni; Soldovieri, Francesco; Serafino, Francesco; Lugni, Claudio; Fucile, Fabio; Bulian, Gabriele

    2016-04-01

    X-band radar system is able to provide information about direction and intensity of the sea surface currents and dominant waves in a range of few kilometers from the observation point (up to 3 nautical miles). This capability, together with their flexibility and low cost, makes these devices useful tools for the sea monitoring either coastal or off-shore area. The data collected from wave radar system can be analyzed by using the inversion strategy presented in [1,2] to obtain the estimation of the following sea parameters: peak wave direction; peak period; peak wavelength; significant wave height; sea surface current and bathymetry. The estimation of the significant wave height represents a limitation of the wave radar system because of the radar backscatter is not directly related to the sea surface elevation. In fact, in the last period, substantial research has been carried out to estimate significant wave height from radar images either with or without calibration using in-situ measurements. In this work, we will present two alternative approaches for the reconstruction of the sea surface elevation from wave radar images. In particular, the first approach is based on the basis of an approximated version of the modulation transfer function (MTF) tuned from a series of numerical simulation, following the line of[3]. The second approach is based on the inversion of radar images using a direct regularised least square technique. Assuming a linearised model for the tilt modulation, the sea elevation has been reconstructed as a least square fitting of the radar imaging data[4]. References [1]F. Serafino, C. Lugni, and F. Soldovieri, "A novel strategy for the surface current determination from marine X-band radar data," IEEE Geosci.Remote Sens. Lett., vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 231-235, Apr. 2010. [2]Ludeno, G., Brandini, C., Lugni, C., Arturi, D., Natale, A., Soldovieri, F., Serafino, F. (2014). Remocean System for the Detection of the Reflected Waves from the Costa

  6. Radar-based collision avoidance for unmanned surface vehicles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhuang, Jia-yuan; Zhang, Lei; Zhao, Shi-qi; Cao, Jian; Wang, Bo; Sun, Han-bing

    2016-12-01

    Unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) have become a focus of research because of their extensive applications. To ensure safety and reliability and to perform complex tasks autonomously, USVs are required to possess accurate perception of the environment and effective collision avoidance capabilities. To achieve these, investigation into realtime marine radar target detection and autonomous collision avoidance technologies is required, aiming at solving the problems of noise jamming, uneven brightness, target loss, and blind areas in marine radar images. These technologies should also satisfy the requirements of real-time and reliability related to high navigation speeds of USVs. Therefore, this study developed an embedded collision avoidance system based on the marine radar, investigated a highly real-time target detection method which contains adaptive smoothing algorithm and robust segmentation algorithm, developed a stable and reliable dynamic local environment model to ensure the safety of USV navigation, and constructed a collision avoidance algorithm based on velocity obstacle (V-obstacle) which adjusts the USV's heading and speed in real-time. Sea trials results in multi-obstacle avoidance firstly demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed avoidance system, and then verify its great adaptability and relative stability when a USV sailing in a real and complex marine environment. The obtained results will improve the intelligent level of USV and guarantee the safety of USV independent sailing.

  7. Exploring Vesta's Surface Roughness and Dielectric Properties Using VIR Spectrometer and Bistatic Radar Observations by the Dawn Mission

    Science.gov (United States)

    Palmer, E. M.; Heggy, E.; Capria, M. T.; Tosi, F.; Kofman, W. W.; Russell, C. T.

    2014-12-01

    Multiple lines of evidence from NASA's Dawn mission suggest transient volatile presence at the surface of asteroid Vesta. Radar remote sensing is a useful technique for the investigation of volatile content at the surface and shallow subsurface, but requires the use of accurate dielectric and topographic models in order to deconvolve the effect of surface roughness from the total observed radar backscatter. Toward this end, we construct a dielectric model for the dry, volatile-poor case of Vesta's surface to represent average surface conditions, and to assess the expected average range of dielectric properties due to known variations in mineralogy, temperature, and density as inferred from Dawn VIR data. We employ dielectric studies of lunar samples to serve as a suitable analog to the Vestan regolith, and in the case of 10-wavelength penetration depth of X-band frequency radar observations, our model yields ɛ' from 2.5 to 2.6 from the night to dayside of Vesta, and tan δ from 0.011 to 0.014. Our estimation of ɛ' corresponds to specular surface reflectivity of ~0.05. In addition to modeling, we have also conducted an opportunistic bistatic radar (BSR) experiment at Vesta using the communications antennas aboard Dawn and on Earth. In this configuration, Dawn transmits a continuous radar signal toward the Earth while orbiting Vesta. As the Dawn spacecraft passes behind Vesta (entering an occultation), the line of sight between Dawn and Earth intersects Vesta's surface, resulting in a reflection of radar waves from the surface and shallow subsurface, which are then received on Earth for analysis. The geometry of the Dawn BSR experiment results in high incidence angles on Vesta's surface, and leads to a differential Doppler shift of only a few 10s of Hz between the direct signal and the surface echo. As a consequence, this introduces ambiguity in the measurement of bandwidth and peak power of each surface echo. We report our interpretations of each surface echo in

  8. Measurement of the sea surface wind speed and direction by an airborne microwave radar altimeter

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Nekrassov, A. [GKSS-Forschungszentrum Geesthacht GmbH (Germany). Inst. fuer Hydrophysik

    2001-07-01

    A pilot needs operational information about wind over sea as well as wave height to provide safety of a hydroplane landing on water. Near-surface wind speed and direction can be obtained with an airborne microwave scatterometer, radar designed for measuring the scatter characteristics of a surface. Mostly narrow-beam antennas are applied for such wind measurement. Unfortunately, a microwave narrow-beam antenna has considerable size that hampers its placing on flying apparatus. In this connection, a possibility to apply a conventional airborne radar altimeter as a scatterometer with a nadir-looking wide-beam antenna in conjunction with Doppler filtering for recovering the wind vector over sea is discussed, and measuring algorithms of sea surface wind speed and direction are proposed. The obtained results can be used for creation of an airborne radar system for operational measurement of the sea roughness characteristics and for safe landing of a hydroplane on water. (orig.)

  9. Performance indicators modern surveillance radar

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nooij, P.N.C.; Theil, A.

    2014-01-01

    Blake chart computations are widely employed to rank detection coverage capabilities of competitive search radar systems. Developed for comparable 2D radar systems with a mechanically rotating reflector antenna, it was not necessary to regard update rate and plot quality in Blake's chart. To

  10. 46 CFR 184.404 - Radars.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... within one mile of land must be fitted with a FCC Type Accepted general marine radar system for surface... Federal Communications Commission (FCC) type accepted general marine radar system for surface navigation... 46 Shipping 7 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Radars. 184.404 Section 184.404 Shipping COAST GUARD...

  11. A Three-Dimensional View of Titan's Surface Features from Cassini RADAR Stereogrammetry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kirk, R. L.; Howington-Kraus, E.; Redding, B. L.; Becker, T. L.; Lee, E. M.; Stiles, B. W.; Hensley, S.; Hayes, A.; Lopes, R. M.; Lorenz, R. D.; Mitchell, K. L.; Radebaugh, J.; Paganelli, F.; Soderblom, L. A.; Stofan, E. R.; Wood, C. A.; Wall, S. D.; Cassini RADAR Team

    2008-12-01

    As of the end of its four-year Prime Mission, Cassini has obtained 300-1500 m resolution synthetic aperture radar images of the surface of Titan during 19 flybys. The elongated image swaths overlap extensively, and ~2% of the surface has now been imaged two or more times. The majority of image pairs have different viewing directions, and thus contain stereo parallax that encodes information about Titan's surface relief over distances of ~1 km and greater. As we have previously reported, the first step toward extracting quantitative topographic information was the development of rigorous "sensor models" that allowed the stereo systems previously used at the USGS and JPL to map Venus with Magellan images to be used for Titan mapping. The second major step toward extensive topomapping of Titan has been the reprocessing of the RADAR images based on an improved model of the satellite's rotation. Whereas the original images (except for a few pairs obtained at similar orbital phase, some of which we have mapped previously) were offset by as much as 30 km, the new versions align much better. The remaining misalignments, typically carbono)logic" cycle of precipitation, evaporation, and surface and subsurface fluid flow?

  12. Impact of Surface Soil Moisture Variations on Radar Altimetry Echoes at Ku and Ka Bands in Semi-Arid Areas

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christophe Fatras

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Radar altimetry provides information on the topography of the Earth surface. It is commonly used for the monitoring not only sea surface height but also ice sheets topography and inland water levels. The radar altimetry backscattering coefficient, which depends on surface roughness and water content, can be related to surface properties such as surface soil moisture content. In this study, the influence of surface soil moisture on the radar altimetry echo and backscattering coefficient is analyzed over semi-arid areas. A semi-empirical model of the soil’s complex dielectric permittivity that takes into account that small-scale roughness and large-scale topography was developed to simulate the radar echoes. It was validated using waveforms acquired at Ku and Ka-bands by ENVISAT RA-2 and SARAL AltiKa respectively over several sites in Mali. Correlation coefficients ranging from 0.66 to 0.94 at Ku-band and from 0.27 to 0.96 at Ka-band were found. The increase in surface soil moisture from 0.02 to 0.4 (i.e., the typical range of variations in semi-arid areas increase the backscattering from 10 to 15 dB between the core of the dry and the maximum of the rainy seasons.

  13. Millimeter wave radar system on a rotating platform for combined search and track functionality with SAR imaging

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aulenbacher, Uwe; Rech, Klaus; Sedlmeier, Johannes; Pratisto, Hans; Wellig, Peter

    2014-10-01

    Ground based millimeter wave radar sensors offer the potential for a weather-independent automatic ground surveillance at day and night, e.g. for camp protection applications. The basic principle and the experimental verification of a radar system concept is described, which by means of an extreme off-axis positioning of the antenna(s) combines azimuthal mechanical beam steering with the formation of a circular-arc shaped synthetic aperture (SA). In automatic ground surveillance the function of search and detection of moving ground targets is performed by means of the conventional mechanical scan mode. The rotated antenna structure designed as a small array with two or more RX antenna elements with simultaneous receiver chains allows to instantaneous track multiple moving targets (monopulse principle). The simultaneously operated SAR mode yields areal images of the distribution of stationary scatterers. For ground surveillance application this SAR mode is best suited for identifying possible threats by means of change detection. The feasibility of this concept was tested by means of an experimental radar system comprising of a 94 GHz (W band) FM-CW module with 1 GHz bandwidth and two RX antennas with parallel receiver channels, placed off-axis at a rotating platform. SAR mode and search/track mode were tested during an outdoor measurement campaign. The scenery of two persons walking along a road and partially through forest served as test for the capability to track multiple moving targets. For SAR mode verification an image of the area composed of roads, grassland, woodland and several man-made objects was reconstructed from the measured data.

  14. Planetary Radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neish, Catherine D.; Carter, Lynn M.

    2015-01-01

    This chapter describes the principles of planetary radar, and the primary scientific discoveries that have been made using this technique. The chapter starts by describing the different types of radar systems and how they are used to acquire images and accurate topography of planetary surfaces and probe their subsurface structure. It then explains how these products can be used to understand the properties of the target being investigated. Several examples of discoveries made with planetary radar are then summarized, covering solar system objects from Mercury to Saturn. Finally, opportunities for future discoveries in planetary radar are outlined and discussed.

  15. Remote sensing of surface currents in the Fraser River plume with the SeaSonde HF radar

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hodgins, D.O.; Hardy, J.S.; Tinis, S.E.

    1994-09-01

    The SeaSonde 12.5-MHz radar system was deployed to measure surface currents in the Juan de Fuca Strait in July 1992. Reliable data were obtained from the two radars installed, and successful trials were conducted with the Infosat satellite link to transmit data from the remote site. Data recovery from the SeaSonde was generally good, with maximum ranges varying from 15 km to over 30 km. Sea echo return strength at both radars was correlated with wind, consistent with lower Bragg scattering at lower wind speeds. A simple surface current forecasting algorithm, based on decomposing the signal into tidal and residual bands, was examined. It was found that tides account for the greatest portion of currents in the study area, and could be forecasted out to 48 h with 1-2 d of input data. The nonpredictable, fluctuating part of the current signal was isolated and its statistics were calculated. The algorithm tests showed that the SeaSonde data can be used to measure and predict the slowly varying tidal and mean flow velocities, as well as the random part of the signal, both of which are important in oil spill modelling. Surface flow patterns and time-series data from the SeaSonde measurements, and from a three-dimensional hydrodynamic model, were compared from an oil spill modelling perspective. In general, surface flow patterns from the model were smoother than those observed. The differences were most noticeable in the cross-channel direction. The radar data indicate that a flow-dependent eddy viscosity formulation, with coefficients calibrated to reproduce the features observed with the radar, would improve agreement and yield a good model for data assimilation. 21 refs., 478 figs., 3 tabs

  16. The use of magnetic susceptibility as a forensic search tool.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pringle, Jamie K; Giubertoni, Matteo; Cassidy, Nigel J; Wisniewski, Kristopher D; Hansen, James D; Linford, Neil T; Daniels, Rebecca M

    2015-01-01

    There are various techniques available for forensic search teams to employ to successfully detect a buried object. Near-surface geophysical search methods have been dominated by ground penetrating radar but recently other techniques, such as electrical resistivity, have become more common. This paper discusses magnetic susceptibility as a simple surface search tool illustrated by various research studies. These suggest magnetic susceptibility to be a relatively low cost, quick and effective tool, compared to other geophysical methods, to determine disturbed ground above buried objects and burnt surface remains in a variety of soil types. Further research should collect datasets over objects of known burial ages for comparison purposes and used in forensic search cases to validate the technique. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. Determination of radar MTF

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chambers, D. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)

    1994-11-15

    The ultimate goal of the Current Meter Array (CMA) is to be able to compare the current patterns detected with the array with radar images of the water surface. The internal wave current patterns modulate the waves on the water surface giving a detectable modulation of the radar cross-section (RCS). The function relating the RCS modulations to the current patterns is the Modulation Transfer Function (MTF). By comparing radar images directly with co-located CMA measurements the MTF can be determined. In this talk radar images and CMA measurements from a recent experiment at Loch Linnhe, Scotland, will be used to make the first direct determination of MTF for an X and S band radar at low grazing angles. The technical problems associated with comparing radar images to CMA data will be explained and the solution method discussed. The results suggest the both current and strain rate contribute equally to the radar modulation for X band. For S band, the strain rate contributes more than the current. The magnitude of the MTF and the RCS modulations are consistent with previous estimates when the wind is blowing perpendicular to the radar look direction.

  18. Radar orthogonality and radar length in Finsler and metric spacetime geometry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pfeifer, Christian

    2014-09-01

    The radar experiment connects the geometry of spacetime with an observers measurement of spatial length. We investigate the radar experiment on Finsler spacetimes which leads to a general definition of radar orthogonality and radar length. The directions radar orthogonal to an observer form the spatial equal time surface an observer experiences and the radar length is the physical length the observer associates to spatial objects. We demonstrate these concepts on a forth order polynomial Finsler spacetime geometry which may emerge from area metric or premetric linear electrodynamics or in quantum gravity phenomenology. In an explicit generalization of Minkowski spacetime geometry we derive the deviation from the Euclidean spatial length measure in an observers rest frame explicitly.

  19. HF radar and drifter observing system in the Adriatic for fishery management and security

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Corgnati, Lorenzo; Carlson, Daniel Frazier; Mantovani, Carlo

    2014-01-01

    A HF radar system has been operating since May 2013 in the Southern Adriatic between the Gargano Cape and the Manfredonia Gulf. The system, that has been tested and complemented with drifter launchings during three experiments, produces maps of surface ocean velocities at 2 km resolution every hour....... These data support fishery management as well as search and rescue and pollution mitigation operations. The Manfredonia Gulf is a known nursery area for small pelagic fish (anchovies and sardines), and its dynamics and connectivity properties are very relevant to the study of population dynamics. HF radar...

  20. Investigation of Planets and Small Bodies Using Decameter Wavelength Radar Sounders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Safaeinili, A.

    2003-12-01

    Decameter wavelength radar sounders provide a unique capability for the exploration of subsurface of planets and internal structure of small bodies. Recently, a number of experimental radar sounding instruments have been proposed and/or are planned to become operational in the near future. The first of these radar sounders is MARSIS (Picardi et al.) that is about to arrive at Mars on ESA's Mars Express for a two-year mission. The second radar sounder, termed SHARAD (Seu et. al), will fly on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance orbiter in 2005. MARSIS and SHARAD have complementary science objectives in that MARSIS (0.1-5.5 MHz) is designed to explore the deep subsurface with a depth resolution of ˜100 m while SHARAD (15-25 MHz) focuses its investigation to near-surface (generation of radar sounders will benefit from high power and high data rate capability that is made available through the use of Nuclear Electric generators. An example of such high-capability mission is the Jovian Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) where, for example, the radar sounder can be used to explore beneath the icy surfaces of Europa in search of the ice/ocean interface. The decameter wave radar sounder is probably the only instrument that has the potential of providing an accurate estimate for the ocean depth. Another exciting and rewarding area of application for planetary radar sounding is the investigation of the deep interior of small bodies (asteroids and comets). The small size of asteroids and comets provides the opportunity to collect data in a manner that enables Radio Reflection Tomographic (RRT) reconstruction of the body in the same manner that a medical ultrasound probe can image the interior of our body. This paper provides an overview of current technical capabilities and challenges and the potential of radio sounders in the investigation of planets and small bodies.

  1. Microwave remote sensing: Active and passive. Volume 2 - Radar remote sensing and surface scattering and emission theory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ulaby, F. T.; Moore, R. K.; Fung, A. K.

    1982-01-01

    The fundamental principles of radar backscattering measurements are presented, including measurement statistics, Doppler and pulse discrimination techniques, and associated ambiguity functions. The operation of real and synthetic aperture sidelooking airborne radar systems is described, along with the internal and external calibration techniques employed in scattering measurements. Attention is given to the physical mechanisms responsible for the scattering emission behavior of homogeneous and inhomogeneous media, through a discussion of surface roughness, dielectric properties and inhomogeneity, and penetration depth. Simple semiempirical models are presented. Theoretical models involving greater mathematical sophistication are also given for extended ocean and bare soil surfaces, and the more general case of a vegetation canopy over a rough surface.

  2. Multiscale radar mapping of surface melt over mountain glaciers in High Mountain Asia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Steiner, N.; McDonald, K. C.

    2017-12-01

    Glacier melt dominates input for many hydrologic systems in the Himalayan Hindukush region that feed rivers that are critical for downstream ecosystems and hydropower generation in this highly populated area. Deviation in seasonal surface melt timing and duration with a changing climate has the potential to affect up to a billion people on the Indian Subcontinent. Satellite-borne microwave remote sensing has unique capabilities that allow monitoring of numerous landscape processes associated with snowmelt and freeze/thaw state, without many of the limitations in optical-infrared sensors such as solar illumination or atmospheric conditions. The onset of regional freeze/thaw and surface melting transitions determine important surface hydrologic variables like river discharge. Theses regional events are abrupt therefore difficult to observe with low-frequency observation sensors. Recently launched synthetic aperture radar (SAR) onboard the Sentinel-1 A and B satellites from the European Space Agency (ESA) provide wide-swath and high spatial resolution (50-100 m) C-Band SAR observations with observations frequencies not previously available, on the order of 8 to 16 days. The Sentinel SARs provide unique opportunity to study freeze/thaw and mountain glacier melt dynamics at process level scales, spatial and temporal. The melt process of individual glaciers, being fully resolved by imaging radar, will inform on the radiometric scattering physics associated with surface hydrology during the transition from melted to thawed state and during refreeze. Backscatter observations, along with structural information about the surface will be compared with complimentary coarse spatial resolution C-Band radar scatterometers, Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT Met Op A+B), to understand the sub-pixel contribution of surface melting and freeze/thaw signals. This information will inform on longer-scale records of backscatter from ASCAT, 2006-2017. We present a comparison of polarimetric C

  3. An Analysis of MARSIS Radar Flash Memory Data from Lunae Planum, Mars: Searching for Subsurface Structures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Caprarelli, G.; Orosei, R.; Mastrogiuseppe, M.; Cartacci, M.

    2017-12-01

    Lunae Planum is a Martian plain measuring approximately 1000 km in width and 2000 km in length, centered at coordinates 294°E-11°N. MOLA elevations range from +2500 m to +500 m in the south, gently sloping northward to -500 m. The plain is part of a belt of terrains located between the southern highlands and the northern lowlands, that are transitional in character (e.g., by elevation, age and morphology). These transitional terrains are poorly understood, in part because of their relative lack of major geomorphological features. They record however a very significant part of Mars's geologic history. The most evident features on Lunae Planum's Hesperian surface are regularly spaced, longitudinally striking, wrinkle ridges. These indicate the presence of blind thrust faults cutting through thick stacks of layers of volcanic or sedimentary rocks. The presence of fluidized ejecta craters scattered all over the region suggests also the presence of ice or volatiles in the subsurface. In a preliminary study of Lunae Planum's subsurface we used the Mars Express ground penetrating radar MARSIS dataset [1], in order to detect reflectors that could indicate the presence of fault planes or layering. Standard radargrams however, provided no evidence of changes in value of dielectric constant that could indicate possible geologic discontinuities or stratification of physically diverse materials. We thus started a new investigation based on processing of raw MARSIS data. Here we report on the preliminary results of this study. We searched the MARSIS archive for raw data stored in flash memory. When operating with flash storage, the radar collects 2 frequency bands along-track covering a distance = 100-250 km, depending on the orbiter altitude [2]. We found flash memory data from 24 orbits over the area. We processed the data focusing radar returns in off-nadir directions, to maximize the likelihood of detecting sloping subsurface structures, including those striking parallel

  4. High-resolution, real-time mapping of surface soil moisture at the field scale using ground penetrating radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lambot, S.; Minet, J.; Slob, E.; Vereecken, H.; Vanclooster, M.

    2008-12-01

    Measuring soil surface water content is essential in hydrology and agriculture as this variable controls important key processes of the hydrological cycle such as infiltration, runoff, evaporation, and energy exchanges between the earth and the atmosphere. We present a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) method for automated, high-resolution, real-time mapping of soil surface dielectric permittivity and correlated water content at the field scale. Field scale characterization and monitoring is not only necessary for field scale management applications, but also for unravelling upscaling issues in hydrology and bridging the scale gap between local measurements and remote sensing. In particular, such methods are necessary to validate and improve remote sensing data products. The radar system consists of a vector network analyzer combined with an off-ground, ultra-wideband monostatic horn antenna, thereby setting up a continuous-wave steeped-frequency GPR. Radar signal analysis is based on three-dimensional electromagnetic inverse modelling. The forward model accounts for all antenna effects, antenna-soil interactions, and wave propagation in three-dimensional multilayered media. A fast procedure was developed to evaluate the involved Green's function, resulting from a singular, complex integral. Radar data inversion is focused on the surface reflection in the time domain. The method presents considerable advantages compared to the current surface characterization methods using GPR, namely, the ground wave and common reflection methods. Theoretical analyses were performed, dealing with the effects of electric conductivity on the surface reflection when non-negligible, and on near-surface layering, which may lead to unrealistic values for the surface dielectric permittivity if not properly accounted for. Inversion strategies are proposed. In particular the combination of GPR with electromagnetic induction data appears to be promising to deal with highly conductive soils

  5. Using snowflake surface-area-to-volume ratio to model and interpret snowfall triple-frequency radar signatures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gergely, Mathias; Cooper, Steven J.; Garrett, Timothy J.

    2017-10-01

    The snowflake microstructure determines the microwave scattering properties of individual snowflakes and has a strong impact on snowfall radar signatures. In this study, individual snowflakes are represented by collections of randomly distributed ice spheres where the size and number of the constituent ice spheres are specified by the snowflake mass and surface-area-to-volume ratio (SAV) and the bounding volume of each ice sphere collection is given by the snowflake maximum dimension. Radar backscatter cross sections for the ice sphere collections are calculated at X-, Ku-, Ka-, and W-band frequencies and then used to model triple-frequency radar signatures for exponential snowflake size distributions (SSDs). Additionally, snowflake complexity values obtained from high-resolution multi-view snowflake images are used as an indicator of snowflake SAV to derive snowfall triple-frequency radar signatures. The modeled snowfall triple-frequency radar signatures cover a wide range of triple-frequency signatures that were previously determined from radar reflectivity measurements and illustrate characteristic differences related to snow type, quantified through snowflake SAV, and snowflake size. The results show high sensitivity to snowflake SAV and SSD maximum size but are generally less affected by uncertainties in the parameterization of snowflake mass, indicating the importance of snowflake SAV for the interpretation of snowfall triple-frequency radar signatures.

  6. Ground penetrating radar system and method for detecting an object on or below a ground surface

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    De Jongth, R.; Yarovoy, A.; Schukin, A.

    2001-01-01

    Ground penetrating radar system for detecting objects (17) on or below a ground surface (18), comprising at least one transmit antenna (13) having a first foot print (14) at the ground surface, at least one receive antenna (15) having a second foot print (16) at the ground surface, and processing

  7. Results from the search-lidar demonstrator project for detection of small Sea-Surface targets

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Heuvel, J.C. van den; Putten, F.J.M. van; Cohen, L.H.; Kemp, R.A.W.; Franssen, G.C.

    2009-01-01

    Coastal surveillance and naval operations in the littoral both have to deal with the threat of small sea-surface targets. These targets have a low radar cross-section and a low velocity that makes them hard to detect by radar. Typical threats include jet skis, FIAC's, and speedboats. Previous lidar

  8. Hindcasting and Forecasting of Surface Flow Fields through Assimilating High Frequency Remotely Sensing Radar Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lei Ren

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available In order to improve the forecasting ability of numerical models, a sequential data assimilation scheme, nudging, was applied to blend remotely sensing high-frequency (HF radar surface currents with results from a three-dimensional numerical, EFDC (Environmental Fluid Dynamics Code model. For the first time, this research presents the most appropriate nudging parameters, which were determined from sensitivity experiments. To examine the influence of data assimilation cycle lengths on forecasts and to extend forecasting improvements, the duration of data assimilation cycles was studied through assimilating linearly interpolated temporal radar data. Data assimilation nudging parameters have not been previously analyzed. Assimilation of HF radar measurements at each model computational timestep outperformed those assimilation models using longer data assimilation cycle lengths; root-mean-square error (RMSE values of both surface velocity components during a 12 h model forecasting period indicated that surface flow fields were significantly improved when implementing nudging assimilation at each model computational timestep. The Data Assimilation Skill Score (DASS technique was used to quantitatively evaluate forecast improvements. The averaged values of DASS over the data assimilation domain were 26% and 33% for east–west and north–south velocity components, respectively, over the half-day forecasting period. Correlation of Averaged Kinetic Energy (AKE was improved by more than 10% in the best data assimilation model. Time series of velocity components and surface flow fields were presented to illustrate the improvement resulting from data assimilation application over time.

  9. Study of sea-surface slope distribution and its effect on radar backscatter based on Global Precipitation Measurement Ku-band precipitation radar measurements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yan, Qiushuang; Zhang, Jie; Fan, Chenqing; Wang, Jing; Meng, Junmin

    2018-01-01

    The collocated normalized radar backscattering cross-section measurements from the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Ku-band precipitation radar (KuPR) and the winds from the moored buoys are used to study the effect of different sea-surface slope probability density functions (PDFs), including the Gaussian PDF, the Gram-Charlier PDF, and the Liu PDF, on the geometrical optics (GO) model predictions of the radar backscatter at low incidence angles (0 deg to 18 deg) at different sea states. First, the peakedness coefficient in the Liu distribution is determined using the collocations at the normal incidence angle, and the results indicate that the peakedness coefficient is a nonlinear function of the wind speed. Then, the performance of the modified Liu distribution, i.e., Liu distribution using the obtained peakedness coefficient estimate; the Gaussian distribution; and the Gram-Charlier distribution is analyzed. The results show that the GO model predictions with the modified Liu distribution agree best with the KuPR measurements, followed by the predictions with the Gaussian distribution, while the predictions with the Gram-Charlier distribution have larger differences as the total or the slick filtered, not the radar filtered, probability density is included in the distribution. The best-performing distribution changes with incidence angle and changes with wind speed.

  10. A probabilistic method for the estimation of ocean surface currents from short time series of HF radar data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guérin, Charles-Antoine; Grilli, Stéphan T.

    2018-01-01

    We present a new method for inverting ocean surface currents from beam-forming HF radar data. In contrast with the classical method, which inverts radial currents based on shifts of the main Bragg line in the radar Doppler spectrum, the method works in the temporal domain and inverts currents from the amplitude modulation of the I and Q radar time series. Based on this principle, we propose a Maximum Likelihood approach, which can be combined with a Bayesian inference method assuming a prior current distribution, to infer values of the radial surface currents. We assess the method performance by using synthetic radar signal as well as field data, and systematically comparing results with those of the Doppler method. The new method is found advantageous for its robustness to noise at long range, its ability to accommodate shorter time series, and the possibility to use a priori information to improve the estimates. Limitations are related to current sign errors at far-ranges and biased estimates for small current values and very short samples. We apply the new technique to a data set from a typical 13.5 MHz WERA radar, acquired off of Vancouver Island, BC, and show that it can potentially improve standard synoptic current mapping.

  11. Using snowflake surface-area-to-volume ratio to model and interpret snowfall triple-frequency radar signatures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Gergely

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available The snowflake microstructure determines the microwave scattering properties of individual snowflakes and has a strong impact on snowfall radar signatures. In this study, individual snowflakes are represented by collections of randomly distributed ice spheres where the size and number of the constituent ice spheres are specified by the snowflake mass and surface-area-to-volume ratio (SAV and the bounding volume of each ice sphere collection is given by the snowflake maximum dimension. Radar backscatter cross sections for the ice sphere collections are calculated at X-, Ku-, Ka-, and W-band frequencies and then used to model triple-frequency radar signatures for exponential snowflake size distributions (SSDs. Additionally, snowflake complexity values obtained from high-resolution multi-view snowflake images are used as an indicator of snowflake SAV to derive snowfall triple-frequency radar signatures. The modeled snowfall triple-frequency radar signatures cover a wide range of triple-frequency signatures that were previously determined from radar reflectivity measurements and illustrate characteristic differences related to snow type, quantified through snowflake SAV, and snowflake size. The results show high sensitivity to snowflake SAV and SSD maximum size but are generally less affected by uncertainties in the parameterization of snowflake mass, indicating the importance of snowflake SAV for the interpretation of snowfall triple-frequency radar signatures.

  12. Interception of LPI radar signals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Jim P.

    1991-11-01

    Most current radars are designed to transmit short duration pulses with relatively high peak power. These radars can be detected easily by the use of relatively modest EW intercept receivers. Three radar functions (search, anti-ship missile (ASM) seeker, and navigation) are examined to evaluate the effectiveness of potential low probability of intercept (LPI) techniques, such as waveform coding, antenna profile control, and power management that a radar may employ against current Electronic Warfare (EW) receivers. The general conclusion is that it is possible to design a LPI radar which is effective against current intercept EW receivers. LPI operation is most easily achieved at close ranges and against a target with a large radar cross section. The general system sensitivity requirement for the detection of current and projected LPI radars is found to be on the order of -100 dBmi which cannot be met by current EW receivers. Finally, three potential LPI receiver architectures, using channelized, superhet, and acousto-optic receivers with narrow RF and video bandwidths are discussed. They have shown some potential in terms of providing the sensitivity and capability in an environment where both conventional and LPI signals are present.

  13. The ISMAR high frequency coastal radar network: Monitoring surface currents for management of marine resources

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Carlson, Daniel Frazier

    2015-01-01

    The Institute of Marine Sciences (ISMAR) of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR) established a High Frequency (HF) Coastal Radar Network for the measurement of the velocity of surface currents in coastal seas. The network consists of four HF radar systems located on the coast of the Gargano...... Promontory (Southern Adriatic, Italy). The network has been operational since May 2013 and covers an area of approximately 1700 square kilometers in the Gulf of Manfredonia. Quality Assessment (QA) procedures are applied for the systems deployment and maintenance and Quality Control (QC) procedures...

  14. Surface circulation patterns at the southeastern Bay of Biscay: new observations from HF radar data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Solabarrieta, L.; Rubio, A.; Medina, R.; Paduan, J. D.; Castanedo, S.; Fontán, A.; Cook, M.; González, M.

    2012-12-01

    A CODAR Seasonde High Frequency (HF) radar network has been operational since the beginning of 2009 for the oceanic region of the Basque Country, Spain (south-eastern Bay of Biscay, Atlantic Ocean). It forms part of the Basque operational data acquisition system, established by the Directorate of Emergency Attention and Meteorology of the Basque Government. It is made up of two antennas, at the capes Higer (43d 23.554' N, 1d 47.745' W) and Matxitxako (43d 7.350' N, 2d 45.163' W), emitting at 4.525 MHz frequency and 30 kHz bandwidth. This system provides hourly surface currents with 5.12 km spatial resolution, covering 10,000 km2. Space- and time-covering measurements have been available in the study area since 2009. The data contribute considerably to the study of surface current patterns and the main physical processes in the area. Additional applications relate to security of navigation, maritime rescue, validation and improvement of numerical models, etc. For comparison with other validation studies and to obtain an estimate of the performance of the Basque system, statistical and spectral analysis of the surface currents obtained through the HF radar and different in-situ platforms have been conducted. The analyses show values of comparison between the different measuring systems consistent with those done by other authors (Paduan and Rosenfeld, 1996; Kaplan et al., 2005). The radar is able to reproduce the time evolution of the currents with a reasonable accuracy; likewise, the main three spectral peaks (inertial, semidiurnal and diurnal) are well resolved. In this context, the aim of this work is to show the HF radar ability to measure accurately the surface currents in the south-eastern Bay of Biscay and to study the ocean circulation in the area (figures 1 and 2). Surface current patterns are analysed and described for the period 2009-2011, for different timescales. A clear seasonality at a large-scale has been observed in accordance with previous work

  15. Sea clutter scattering, the K distribution and radar performance

    CERN Document Server

    Ward, Keith; Watts, Simon

    2013-01-01

    Sea Clutter: Scattering, the K Distribution and Radar Performance, 2nd Edition gives an authoritative account of our current understanding of radar sea clutter. Topics covered include the characteristics of radar sea clutter, modelling radar scattering by the ocean surface, statistical models of sea clutter, the simulation of clutter and other random processes, detection of small targets in sea clutter, imaging ocean surface features, radar detection performance calculations, CFAR detection, and the specification and measurement of radar performance. The calculation of the performance of pract

  16. AMSNEXRAD-Automated detection of meteorite strewnfields in doppler weather radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hankey, Michael; Fries, Marc; Matson, Rob; Fries, Jeff

    2017-09-01

    For several years meteorite recovery in the United States has been greatly enhanced by using Doppler weather radar images to determine possible fall zones for meteorites produced by witnessed fireballs. While most fireball events leave no record on the Doppler radar, some large fireballs do. Based on the successful recovery of 10 meteorite falls 'under the radar', and the discovery of radar on more than 10 historic falls, it is believed that meteoritic dust and or actual meteorites falling to the ground have been recorded on Doppler weather radar (Fries et al., 2014). Up until this point, the process of detecting the radar signatures associated with meteorite falls has been a manual one and dependent on prior accurate knowledge of the fall time and estimated ground track. This manual detection process is labor intensive and can take several hours per event. Recent technological developments by NOAA now help enable the automation of these tasks. This in combination with advancements by the American Meteor Society (Hankey et al., 2014) in the tracking and plotting of witnessed fireballs has opened the possibility for automatic detection of meteorites in NEXRAD Radar Archives. Here in the processes for fireball triangulation, search area determination, radar interfacing, data extraction, storage, search, detection and plotting are explained.

  17. Precision metrology of NSTX surfaces using coherent laser radar ranging

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kugel, H.W.; Loesser, D.; Roquemore, A. L.; Menon, M. M.; Barry, R. E.

    2000-01-01

    A frequency modulated Coherent Laser Radar ranging diagnostic is being used on the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) for precision metrology. The distance (range) between the 1.5 microm laser source and the target is measured by the shift in frequency of the linearly modulated beam reflected off the target. The range can be measured to a precision of < 100microm at distances of up to 22 meters. A description is given of the geometry and procedure for measuring NSTX interior and exterior surfaces during open vessel conditions, and the results of measurements are elaborated

  18. Lake Chad Total Surface Water Area as Derived from Land Surface Temperature and Radar Remote Sensing Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Frederick Policelli

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Lake Chad, located in the middle of the African Sahel belt, underwent dramatic decreases in the 1970s and 1980s leaving less than ten percent of its 1960s surface water extent as open water. In this paper, we present an extended record (dry seasons 1988–2016 of the total surface water area of the lake (including both open water and flooded vegetation derived using Land Surface Temperature (LST data (dry seasons 2000–2016 from the NASA Terra MODIS sensor and EUMETSAT Meteosat-based LST measurements (dry seasons 1988–2001 from an earlier study. We also examine the total surface water area for Lake Chad using radar data (dry seasons 2015–2016 from the ESA Sentinel-1a mission. For the limited number of radar data sets available to us (18 data sets, we find on average a close match between the estimates from these data and the corresponding estimates from LST, though we find spatial differences in the estimates using the two types of data. We use these spatial differences to adjust the record (dry seasons 2000–2016 from MODIS LST. Then we use the adjusted record to remove the bias of the existing LST record (dry seasons 1988–2001 derived from Meteosat measurements and combine the two records. From this composite, extended record, we plot the total surface water area of the lake for the dry seasons of 1988–1989 through 2016–2017. We find for the dry seasons of 1988–1989 to 2016–2017 that the maximum total surface water area of the lake was approximately 16,800 sq. km (February and May, 2000, the minimum total surface water area of the lake was approximately 6400 sq. km (November, 1990, and the average was approximately 12,700 sq. km. Further, we find the total surface water area of the lake to be highly variable during this period, with an average rate of increase of approximately 143 km2 per year.

  19. National High Frequency Radar Network (hfrnet) and Pacific Research Efforts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hazard, L.; Terrill, E. J.; Cook, T.; de Paolo, T.; Otero, M. P.; Rogowski, P.; Schramek, T. A.

    2016-12-01

    The U.S. High Frequency Radar Network (HFRNet) has been in operation for over ten years with representation from 31 organizations spanning academic institutions, state and local government agencies, and private organizations. HFRNet currently holds a collection from over 130 radar installations totaling over 10 million records of surface ocean velocity measurements. HFRNet is a primary example of inter-agency and inter-institutional partnerships for improving oceanographic research and operations. HF radar derived surface currents have been used in several societal applications including coastal search and rescue, oil spill response, water quality monitoring and marine navigation. Central to the operational success of the large scale network is an efficient data management, storage, access, and delivery system. The networking of surface current mapping systems is characterized by a tiered structure that extends from the individual field installations to local regional operations maintaining multiple sites and on to centralized locations aggregating data from all regions. The data system development effort focuses on building robust data communications from remote field locations (sites) for ingestion into the data system via data on-ramps (Portals or Site Aggregators) to centralized data repositories (Nodes). Centralized surface current data enables the aggregation of national surface current grids and allows for ingestion into displays, management tools, and models. The Coastal Observing Research and Development Center has been involved in international relationships and research in the Philippines, Palau, and Vietnam. CORDC extends this IT architecture of surface current mapping data systems leveraging existing developments and furthering standardization of data services for seamless integration of higher level applications. Collaborations include the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), The Coral Reef Research

  20. Evaluation on surface current observing network of high frequency ground wave radars in the Gulf of Thailand

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yin, Xunqiang; Shi, Junqiang; Qiao, Fangli

    2018-05-01

    Due to the high cost of ocean observation system, the scientific design of observation network becomes much important. The current network of the high frequency radar system in the Gulf of Thailand has been studied using a three-dimensional coastal ocean model. At first, the observations from current radars have been assimilated into this coastal model and the forecast results have improved due to the data assimilation. But the results also show that further optimization of the observing network is necessary. And then, a series of experiments were carried out to assess the performance of the existing high frequency ground wave radar surface current observation system. The simulated surface current data in three regions were assimilated sequentially using an efficient ensemble Kalman filter data assimilation scheme. The experimental results showed that the coastal surface current observation system plays a positive role in improving the numerical simulation of the currents. Compared with the control experiment without assimilation, the simulation precision of surface and subsurface current had been improved after assimilated the surface currents observed at current networks. However, the improvement for three observing regions was quite different and current observing network in the Gulf of Thailand is not effective and a further optimization is required. Based on these evaluations, a manual scheme has been designed by discarding the redundant and inefficient locations and adding new stations where the performance after data assimilation is still low. For comparison, an objective scheme based on the idea of data assimilation has been obtained. Results show that all the two schemes of observing network perform better than the original network and optimal scheme-based data assimilation is much superior to the manual scheme that based on the evaluation of original observing network in the Gulf of Thailand. The distributions of the optimal network of radars could be a

  1. Inter-seasonal surface deformations of an active rock glacier imaged with radar and lidar remote sensing; Turtmann valley, Switzerland

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kos, Andrew; Buchli, Thomas; Strozzi, Tazio; Springman, Sarah

    2013-04-01

    Inter-seasonal changes in surface deformation were imaged using a portable radar interferometer and terrestrial laser scanner during a series of three campaigns that took place in autumn 2011, summer 2012 and autumn 2012 on a rock glacier located in the Turtmann valley, Switzerland. Satellite radar interferometry (ERS 1 & 2, CosmoSkymed) indicate that accelerated downslope movement of the rock glacier commenced during the 1990s. Due to signal decorrelation associated with the satellite repeat pass time interval, continuous ground-based radar interferometry measurements were undertaken. Results show that the rock glacier accelerated significantly in Summer (Vmax = 6.0cm/25hrs), probably in response to the condition of the subsurface hydrology (e.g. post-peak spring snow melt and/or infiltration of rainfall). In autumn, the displacement velocity was reduced (Vmax = 2.0cm/25hrs). A one year surface difference of the glacier topography, derived from terrestrial laser scanning, provided insight into the rock glacier kinematics. Ongoing research is aimed at integrating surface displacement results with an extensive borehole monitoring system consisting of inclinometers and temperature sensors.

  2. Bistatic High Frequency Radar Ocean Surface Cross Section for an FMCW Source with an Antenna on a Floating Platform

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yue Ma

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The first- and second-order bistatic high frequency radar cross sections of the ocean surface with an antenna on a floating platform are derived for a frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW source. Based on previous work, the derivation begins with the general bistatic electric field in the frequency domain for the case of a floating antenna. Demodulation and range transformation are used to obtain the range information, distinguishing the process from that used for a pulsed radar. After Fourier-transforming the autocorrelation and comparing the result with the radar range equation, the radar cross sections are derived. The new first- and second-order antenna-motion-incorporated bistatic radar cross section models for an FMCW source are simulated and compared with those for a pulsed source. Results show that, for the same radar operating parameters, the first-order radar cross section for the FMCW waveform is a little lower than that for a pulsed source. The second-order radar cross section for the FMCW waveform reduces to that for the pulsed waveform when the scattering patch limit approaches infinity. The effect of platform motion on the radar cross sections for an FMCW waveform is investigated for a variety of sea states and operating frequencies and, in general, is found to be similar to that for a pulsed waveform.

  3. Characterizing the surface circulation in the Ebro Delta using a HF radar data-model approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lorente Jimenez, Pablo; Piedracoba Varela, Silvia; Soto-Navarro, Javier; Garcia-Sotillo, Marcos; Alvarez Fanjul, Enrique

    2016-04-01

    One year-long (2014) quality-controlled current observations from a CODAR SeaSonde High Frequency (HF) radar network deployed in the Ebro Delta (northwestern Mediterranean) were combined with operational products provided by a regional ocean forecasting system named IBI (Iberia-Biscay-Ireland) in order to comprehensively portray the ocean state and its variability. First, accurate HF radar data were used as benchmark for the rigorous validation of IBI performance by means of the computation of skill metrics and quality indicators. The analysis of the monthly averaged current maps for 2014 showed that IBI properly captured the prevailing dynamic features of the coastal circulation observed by the HF radar, according to the resemblance of circulation patterns and the eddy kinetic energy spatial distribution. The model skill assessment was completed with an exploration of dominant modes of variability both in time and space. The EOF analysis confirmed that the modeled surface current field evolved in space and time according to three significantly dominant modes of variability which accounted for the 49.2% of the total variance, in close agreement with the results obtained for the HF radar (46.1%). The response of the subtidal surface current field to prevalent wind regimes in the study area was examined in terms of induced circulation structures by performing a conditional averaging approach. This data-model synergistic approach has proved to be valid to operationally monitor and describe the complex coastal circulation in Ebro Delta despite the observed model drawbacks in terms of reduced energy content in surface currents and some inaccuracies in the wind-driven low frequency response. This integrated methodology constitutes a powerful tool for improving operational ocean forecasting systems at European level within the frame of the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS). It also facilitates high-stakes decision-making for coastal management and

  4. Investigating nearby exoplanets via interstellar radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scheffer, Louis K.

    2014-01-01

    Interstellar radar is a potential intermediate step between passive observation of exoplanets and interstellar exploratory missions. Compared with passive observation, it has the traditional advantages of radar astronomy. It can measure surface characteristics, determine spin rates and axes, provide extremely accurate ranges, construct maps of planets, distinguish liquid from solid surfaces, find rings and moons, and penetrate clouds. It can do this even for planets close to the parent star. Compared with interstellar travel or probes, it also offers significant advantages. The technology required to build such a radar already exists, radar can return results within a human lifetime, and a single facility can investigate thousands of planetary systems. The cost, although too high for current implementation, is within the reach of Earth's economy.

  5. A prototype of radar-drone system for measuring the surface flow velocity at river sites and discharge estimation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moramarco, Tommaso; Alimenti, Federico; Zucco, Graziano; Barbetta, Silvia; Tarpanelli, Angelica; Brocca, Luca; Mezzanotte, Paolo; Rosselli, Luca; Orecchini, Giulia; Virili, Marco; Valigi, Paolo; Ciarfuglia, Thomas; Pagnottelli, Stefano

    2015-04-01

    Discharge estimation at a river site depends on local hydraulic conditions identified by recording water levels. In fact, stage monitoring is straightforward and relatively inexpensive compared with the cost necessary to carry out flow velocity measurements which are, however, limited to low flows and constrained by the accessibility of the site. In this context the mean flow velocity is hard to estimate for high flow, affecting de-facto the reliability of discharge assessment for extreme events. On the other hand, the surface flow velocity can be easily monitored by using radar sensors allowing to achieve a good estimate of discharge by exploiting the entropy theory applied to rivers hydraulic (Chiu,1987). Recently, a growing interest towards the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UVA), henceforth drone, for topographic applications is observed and considering their capability drones may be of a considerable interest for the hydrological monitoring and in particular for streamflow measurements. With this aim, for the first time, a miniaturized Doppler radar sensor, operating at 24 GHz, will be mounted on a drone to measure the surface flow velocity in rivers. The sensor is constituted by a single-board circuit (i.e. is a fully planar circuits - no waveguides) with the antenna on one side and the front-end electronic on the other side (Alimenti et al., 2007). The antenna has a half-power beam width of less than 10 degrees in the elevation plane and a gain of 13 dBi. The radar is equipped with a monolithic oscillator and transmits a power of about 4 mW at 24 GHz. The sensor is mounted with an inclination of 45 degrees with respect to the drone flying plane and such an angle is considered in recovering the surface speed of the water. The drone is a quadricopter that has more than 30 min, flying time before recharging the battery. Furthermore its flying plan can be scheduled with a suitable software and is executed thanks to the on-board sensors (GPS, accelerometers

  6. German Radar Observation Shuttle Experiment (ROSE)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sleber, A. J.; Hartl, P.; Haydn, R.; Hildebrandt, G.; Konecny, G.; Muehlfeld, R.

    1984-01-01

    The success of radar sensors in several different application areas of interest depends on the knowledge of the backscatter of radar waves from the targets of interest, the variance of these interaction mechanisms with respect to changing measurement parameters, and the determination of the influence of he measuring systems on the results. The incidence-angle dependency of the radar cross section of different natural targets is derived. Problems involved by the combination of data gained with different sensors, e.g., MSS-, TM-, SPOTand SAR-images are analyzed. Radar cross-section values gained with ground-based radar spectrometers and spaceborne radar imaging, and non-imaging scatterometers and spaceborne radar images from the same areal target are correlated. The penetration of L-band radar waves into vegetated and nonvegetated surfaces is analyzed.

  7. Sliding surface searching method for slopes containing a potential weak structural surface

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aijun Yao

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Weak structural surface is one of the key factors controlling the stability of slopes. The stability of rock slopes is in general concerned with set of discontinuities. However, in soft rocks, failure can occur along surfaces approaching to a circular failure surface. To better understand the position of potential sliding surface, a new method called simplex-finite stochastic tracking method is proposed. This method basically divides sliding surface into two parts: one is described by smooth curve obtained by random searching, the other one is polyline formed by the weak structural surface. Single or multiple sliding surfaces can be considered, and consequently several types of combined sliding surfaces can be simulated. The paper will adopt the arc-polyline to simulate potential sliding surface and analyze the searching process of sliding surface. Accordingly, software for slope stability analysis using this method was developed and applied in real cases. The results show that, using simplex-finite stochastic tracking method, it is possible to locate the position of a potential sliding surface in the slope.

  8. Effectiveness of WRF wind direction for retrieving coastal sea surface wind from synthetic aperture radar

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Takeyama, Yuko; Ohsawa, Teruo; Kozai, Katsutoshi

    2013-01-01

    Wind direction is required as input to the geophysical model function (GMF) for the retrieval of sea surface wind speed from a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. The present study verifies the effectiveness of using the wind direction obtained from the weather research and forecasting model (...

  9. Ocean current surface measurement using dynamic elevations obtained by the GEOS-3 radar altimeter

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leitao, C. D.; Huang, N. E.; Parra, C. G.

    1977-01-01

    Remote Sensing of the ocean surface from the GEOS-3 satellite using radar altimeter data has confirmed that the altimeter can detect the dynamic ocean topographic elevations relative to an equipotential surface, thus resulting in a reliable direct measurement of the ocean surface. Maps of the ocean dynamic topography calculated over a one month period and with 20 cm contour interval are prepared for the last half of 1975. The Gulf Stream is observed by the rapid slope change shown by the crowding of contours. Cold eddies associated with the current are seen as roughly circular depressions.

  10. Blending of Radial HF Radar Surface Current and Model Using ETKF Scheme For The Sunda Strait

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mujiasih, Subekti; Riyadi, Mochammad; Wandono, Dr; Wayan Suardana, I.; Nyoman Gede Wiryajaya, I.; Nyoman Suarsa, I.; Hartanto, Dwi; Barth, Alexander; Beckers, Jean-Marie

    2017-04-01

    Preliminary study of data blending of surface current for Sunda Strait-Indonesia has been done using the analysis scheme of the Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter (ETKF). The method is utilized to combine radial velocity from HF Radar and u and v component of velocity from Global Copernicus - Marine environment monitoring service (CMEMS) model. The initial ensemble is based on the time variability of the CMEMS model result. Data tested are from 2 CODAR Seasonde radar sites in Sunda Strait and 2 dates such as 09 September 2013 and 08 February 2016 at 12.00 UTC. The radial HF Radar data has a hourly temporal resolution, 20-60 km of spatial range, 3 km of range resolution, 5 degree of angular resolution and spatial resolution and 11.5-14 MHz of frequency range. The u and v component of the model velocity represents a daily mean with 1/12 degree spatial resolution. The radial data from one HF radar site is analyzed and the result compared to the equivalent radial velocity from CMEMS for the second HF radar site. Error checking is calculated by root mean squared error (RMSE). Calculation of ensemble analysis and ensemble mean is using Sangoma software package. The tested R which represents observation error covariance matrix, is a diagonal matrix with diagonal elements equal 0.05, 0.5 or 1.0 m2/s2. The initial ensemble members comes from a model simulation spanning a month (September 2013 or February 2016), one year (2013) or 4 years (2013-2016). The spatial distribution of the radial current are analyzed and the RMSE values obtained from independent HF radar station are optimized. It was verified that the analysis reproduces well the structure included in the analyzed HF radar data. More importantly, the analysis was also improved relative to the second independent HF radar site. RMSE of the improved analysis is better than first HF Radar site Analysis. The best result of the blending exercise was obtained for observation error variance equal to 0.05 m2/s2. This study is

  11. Worldwide Weather Radar Imagery May Allow Substantial Increase in Meteorite Fall Recovery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fries, Marc; Matson, Robert; Schaefer, Jacob; Fries, Jeffery; Hankey, Mike; Anderson, Lindsay

    2014-01-01

    Weather radar imagery is a valuable new technique for the rapid recovery of meteorite falls, to include falls which would not otherwise be recovered (e.g. Battle Mountain). Weather radar imagery reveals about one new meteorite fall per year (18 falls since 1998), using weather radars in the United States alone. However, an additional 75 other nations operate weather radar networks according to the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO). If the imagery of those radars were analyzed, the current rate of meteorite falls could be improved considerably, to as much as 3.6 times the current recovery rate based on comparison of total radar areal coverage. Recently, the addition of weather radar imagery, seismometry and internet-based aggregation of eyewitness reports has improved the speed and accuracy of fresh meteorite fall recovery [e.g. 1,2]. This was demonstrated recently with the radar-enabled recovery of the Sutter's Mill fall [3]. Arguably, the meteorites recovered via these methods are of special scientific value as they are relatively unweathered, fresh falls. To illustrate this, a recent SAO/NASA ADS search using the keyword "meteorite" shows that all 50 of the top search results included at least one named meteorite recovered from a meteorite fall. This is true even though only 1260 named meteorite falls are recorded among the >49,000 individual falls recorded in the Meteoritical Society online database. The US NEXRAD system used thus far to locate meteorite falls covers most of the United States' surface area. Using a WMO map of the world's weather radars, we estimate that the total coverage of the other 75 national weather radar networks equals about 3.6x NEXRAD's coverage area. There are two findings to draw from this calculation: 1) For the past 16 years during which 18 falls are seen in US radar data, there should be an additional 65 meteorite falls recorded in worldwide radar imagery. Also: 2) if all of the world's radar data could be analyzed, the

  12. Physical working principles of medical radar.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aardal, Øyvind; Paichard, Yoann; Brovoll, Sverre; Berger, Tor; Lande, Tor Sverre; Hamran, Svein-Erik

    2013-04-01

    There has been research interest in using radar for contactless measurements of the human heartbeat for several years. While many systems have been demonstrated, not much attention have been given to the actual physical causes of why this work. The consensus seems to be that the radar senses small body movements correlated with heartbeats, but whether only the movements of the body surface or reflections from internal organs are also monitored have not been answered definitely. There has recently been proposed another theory that blood perfusion in the skin could be the main reason radars are able to detect heartbeats. In this paper, an experimental approach is given to determine the physical causes. The measurement results show that it is the body surface reflections that dominate radar measurements of human heartbeats.

  13. Synthetic aperture radar capabilities in development

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Miller, M. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)

    1994-11-15

    The Imaging and Detection Program (IDP) within the Laser Program is currently developing an X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) to support the Joint US/UK Radar Ocean Imaging Program. The radar system will be mounted in the program`s Airborne Experimental Test-Bed (AETB), where the initial mission is to image ocean surfaces and better understand the physics of low grazing angle backscatter. The Synthetic Aperture Radar presentation will discuss its overall functionality and a brief discussion on the AETB`s capabilities. Vital subsystems including radar, computer, navigation, antenna stabilization, and SAR focusing algorithms will be examined in more detail.

  14. Radar Resource Management in a Dense Target Environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-03-01

    linear programming MFR multifunction phased array radar MILP mixed integer linear programming NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization PDF probability...1: INTRODUCTION Multifunction phased array radars ( MFRs ) are capable of performing various tasks in rapid succession. The performance of target search...detect, and track operations concurrently with missile guidance functions allow MFRs to deliver superior battle space awareness and air defense

  15. Research on effect of rough surface on FMCW laser radar range accuracy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tao, Huirong

    2018-03-01

    The non-cooperative targets large scale measurement system based on frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) laser detection and ranging technology has broad application prospects. It is easy to automate measurement without cooperative targets. However, the complexity and diversity of the surface characteristics of the measured surface directly affects the measurement accuracy. First, the theoretical analysis of range accuracy for a FMCW laser radar was studied, the relationship between surface reflectivity and accuracy was obtained. Then, to verify the effect of surface reflectance for ranging accuracy, a standard tool ball and three standard roughness samples were measured within 7 m to 24 m. The uncertainty of each target was obtained. The results show that the measurement accuracy is found to increase as the surface reflectivity gets larger. Good agreements were obtained between theoretical analysis and measurements from rough surfaces. Otherwise, when the laser spot diameter is smaller than the surface correlation length, a multi-point averaged measurement can reduce the measurement uncertainty. The experimental results show that this method is feasible.

  16. Near surface bulk density estimates of NEAs from radar observations and permittivity measurements of powdered geologic material

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hickson, Dylan; Boivin, Alexandre; Daly, Michael G.; Ghent, Rebecca; Nolan, Michael C.; Tait, Kimberly; Cunje, Alister; Tsai, Chun An

    2018-05-01

    The variations in near-surface properties and regolith structure of asteroids are currently not well constrained by remote sensing techniques. Radar is a useful tool for such determinations of Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) as the power of the reflected signal from the surface is dependent on the bulk density, ρbd, and dielectric permittivity. In this study, high precision complex permittivity measurements of powdered aluminum oxide and dunite samples are used to characterize the change in the real part of the permittivity with the bulk density of the sample. In this work, we use silica aerogel for the first time to increase the void space in the samples (and decrease the bulk density) without significantly altering the electrical properties. We fit various mixing equations to the experimental results. The Looyenga-Landau-Lifshitz mixing formula has the best fit and the Lichtenecker mixing formula, which is typically used to approximate planetary regolith, does not model the results well. We find that the Looyenga-Landau-Lifshitz formula adequately matches Lunar regolith permittivity measurements, and we incorporate it into an existing model for obtaining asteroid regolith bulk density from radar returns which is then used to estimate the bulk density in the near surface of NEA's (101955) Bennu and (25143) Itokawa. Constraints on the material properties appropriate for either asteroid give average estimates of ρbd = 1.27 ± 0.33g/cm3 for Bennu and ρbd = 1.68 ± 0.53g/cm3 for Itokawa. We conclude that our data suggest that the Looyenga-Landau-Lifshitz mixing model, in tandem with an appropriate radar scattering model, is the best method for estimating bulk densities of regoliths from radar observations of airless bodies.

  17. Ground Penetrating Radar employment for searching ancient cisterns.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Semeraro, Grazia; Notario, Corrado; Persico, Raffaele

    2017-04-01

    , M. Noviello, M. Ciminale, R. Persico, Integration of multisensor data: an experiment in the archaeological park of Egnazia (Apulia, Southern Italy), Near Surface Geophysics, Vol. 13, n. 6, pp. 613-621, 2015 4) G. Leucci, N. Masini, R. Persico, F. Soldovieri." GPR and sonic tomography for structural restoration : the case of the Cathedral of Tricarico", Journal of Geophysics and Engineering, vol. 8, pp. S76-S92, Aug. 2011. 5) M. Pieraccini, L. Noferini, D. Mecatti, C. Atzeni, R. Persico, F. Soldovieri, Advanced Processing Techniques for Step-frequency Continuous-Wave Penetrating Radar: the Case Study of "Palazzo Vecchio" Walls (Firenze, Italy), Research on Nondestructive Evaluation, vol. 17, pp. 71-83, 2006. 6) N. Masini, R. Persico, E. Rizzo, A. Calia, M.T. Giannotta, G. Quarta, A. Pagliuca, "Integrated Techniques for Analysis and Monitoring of Historical Monuments: the case of S.Giovanni al Sepolcro in Brindisi (Southern Italy)." Near Surface Geophysics, vol. 8, n. 5, pp. 423-432, 2010.

  18. Wind turbine clutter mitigation in coastal UHF radar.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Jing; Pan, Chao; Wang, Caijun; Jiang, Dapeng; Wen, Biyang

    2014-01-01

    Coastal UHF radar provides a unique capability to measure the sea surface dynamic parameters and detect small moving targets, by exploiting the low energy loss of electromagnetic waves propagating along the salty and good conducting ocean surface. It could compensate the blind zone of HF surface wave radar at close range and reach further distance than microwave radars. However, its performance is susceptible to wind turbines which are usually installed on the shore. The size of a wind turbine is much larger than the wavelength of radio waves at UHF band, which results in large radar cross section. Furthermore, the rotation of blades adds time-varying Doppler frequency to the clutter and makes the suppression difficult. This paper proposes a mitigation method which is based on the specific periodicity of wind turbine clutter and performed mainly in the time-frequency domain. Field experimental data of a newly developed UHF radar are used to verify this method, and the results prove its effectiveness.

  19. Preliminary radar systems analysis for Venus orbiter missions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brandenburg, R. K.; Spadoni, D. J.

    1971-01-01

    A short, preliminary analysis is presented of the problems involved in mapping the surface of Venus with radar from an orbiting spacecraft. Two types of radar, the noncoherent sidelooking and the focused synthetic aperture systems, are sized to fulfill two assumed levels of Venus exploration. The two exploration levels, regional and local, assumed for this study are based on previous Astro Sciences work (Klopp 1969). The regional level is defined as 1 to 3 kilometer spatial and 0.5 to 1 km vertical resolution of 100 percent 0 of the planet's surface. The local level is defined as 100 to 200 meter spatial and 50-10 m vertical resolution of about 100 percent of the surfAce (based on the regional survey). A 10cm operating frequency was chosen for both radar systems in order to minimize the antenna size and maximize the apparent radar cross section of the surface.

  20. Radar-to-Radar Interference Suppression for Distributed Radar Sensor Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wen-Qin Wang

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Radar sensor networks, including bi- and multi-static radars, provide several operational advantages, like reduced vulnerability, good system flexibility and an increased radar cross-section. However, radar-to-radar interference suppression is a major problem in distributed radar sensor networks. In this paper, we present a cross-matched filtering-based radar-to-radar interference suppression algorithm. This algorithm first uses an iterative filtering algorithm to suppress the radar-to-radar interferences and, then, separately matched filtering for each radar. Besides the detailed algorithm derivation, extensive numerical simulation examples are performed with the down-chirp and up-chirp waveforms, partially overlapped or inverse chirp rate linearly frequency modulation (LFM waveforms and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (ODFM chirp diverse waveforms. The effectiveness of the algorithm is verified by the simulation results.

  1. NOAA high resolution sea surface winds data from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) on the Sentinel-1 satellites

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set consists of high resolution sea surface winds data produced from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) on board Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-1B satellites. This...

  2. Remote Sensing Global Surface Air Pressure Using Differential Absorption BArometric Radar (DiBAR)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Bing; Harrah, Steven; Lawrence, Wes; Hu, Yongxiang; Min, Qilong

    2016-01-01

    Tropical storms and severe weathers are listed as one of core events that need improved observations and predictions in World Meteorological Organization and NASA Decadal Survey (DS) documents and have major impacts on public safety and national security. This effort tries to observe surface air pressure, especially over open seas, from space using a Differential-absorption BArometric Radar (DiBAR) operating at the 50-55 gigahertz O2 absorption band. Air pressure is among the most important variables that affect atmospheric dynamics, and currently can only be measured by limited in-situ observations over oceans. Analyses show that with the proposed space radar the errors in instantaneous (averaged) pressure estimates can be as low as approximately 4 millibars (approximately 1 millibar under all weather conditions). With these sea level pressure measurements, the forecasts of severe weathers such as hurricanes will be significantly improved. Since the development of the DiBAR concept about a decade ago, NASA Langley DiBAR research team has made substantial progress in advancing the concept. The feasibility assessment clearly shows the potential of sea surface barometry using existing radar technologies. The team has developed a DiBAR system design, fabricated a Prototype-DiBAR (P-DiBAR) for proof-of-concept, conducted lab, ground and airborne P-DiBAR tests. The flight test results are consistent with the instrumentation goals. Observational system simulation experiments for space DiBAR performance based on the existing DiBAR technology and capability show substantial improvements in tropical storm predictions, not only for the hurricane track and position but also for the hurricane intensity. DiBAR measurements will lead us to an unprecedented level of the prediction and knowledge on global extreme weather and climate conditions.

  3. Assessing collision risk for birds and bats : radar survey

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Brunet, R. [Genivar SEC, Sherbrooke, PQ (Canada)

    2010-07-01

    This PowerPoint presentation described some of the inventories and instrumentation available for monitoring winged fauna in and around wind farms. In addition to visual observations, bird calls and songs can be recorded to determine the amount and different types of birds located at wind farm sites. Radio-telemetry devices are also used to evaluate bird activities, and nest searches are conducted to determine the amount of eggs or young birds that will soon add to the bird population. Between 90 and 100 percent of birds and bats migrate at night. Acoustic radar, Doppler radar, and maritime surveillance radar instruments are used to monitor night-time activities in wind farm locations. Doppler radar is also used to detect bird and bat migration corridors. Screen-shots of various radar interfaces were presented. tabs., figs.

  4. Bistatic Radar Observations of the Moon Using Mini-RF on LRO and the Arecibo Observatory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patterson, G. W.; Stickle, A. M.; Turner, F. S.; Jensen, J. R.; Bussey, D. B. J.; Spudis, P.; Espiritu, R. C.; Schulze, R. C.; Yocky, D. A.; Wahl, D. E.; hide

    2016-01-01

    The Miniature Radio Frequency (Mini-RF) instrument aboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is a hybrid dual-polarized synthetic aperture radar (SAR) that operated in concert with the Arecibo Observatory to collect bistatic radar data of the lunar nearside from 2012 to 2015. The purpose of this bistatic campaign was to characterize the radar scattering properties of the surface and near-surface, as a function of bistatic angle, for a variety of lunar terrains and search for a coherent backscatter opposition effect indicative of the presence of water ice. A variety of lunar terrain types were sampled over a range of incidence and bistatic angles; including mare, highland, pyroclastic, crater ejecta, and crater floor materials. Responses consistent with an opposition effect were observed for the ejecta of several Copernican-aged craters and the floor of the south-polar crater Cabeus. The responses of ejecta material varied by crater in a manner that suggests a relationship with crater age. The response for Cabeus was observed within the portion of its floor that is not in permanent shadow. The character of the response differs from that of crater ejecta and appears unique with respect to all other lunar terrains observed. Analysis of data for this region suggests that the unique nature of the response may indicate the presence of near-surface deposits of water ice.

  5. Lagrangian modelling of ocean surface waves and synthetic aperture radar wave measurements

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fouques, Sebastien

    2005-07-01

    The present thesis is concerned with the estimation of the ocean wave spectrum from synthetic aperture radar imaging and the modelling of ocean surface waves using the Lagrangian formalism. The first part gives a short overview of the theories of ocean surface waves and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) whereas the second part consists of five independent publications. The first two articles investigate the influence of the radar backscatter model on the SAR imaging of ocean waves. In Article I, Monte Carlo simulations of SAR images of the ocean surface are carried out using a nonlinear backscatter model that include both specular reflection and Bragg scattering and the results are compared to simulations from the classical Hasselmann integral transform (Hasselmann and Hasselmann, 1991). It is shown that nonlinearities in the backscatter model strongly influence the imaging of range-travelling waves and that the former can suppress the range-splitting effect (Bruning et al., 1988). Furthermore, in Article II a database of Envisat-ASAR Wave Mode products co-located with directional wave spectra from the numerical model WAM and which contains range-travelling wave cases only, is set up. The WAM spectra are used as input to several ocean-to-SAR integral transforms, with various real aperture radar (RAR) models and the obtained SAR image cross-spectra are compared to the Envisat-ASAR observations. A first result is that the use of a linear backscatter model leads to a high proportion of non-physical negative backscatter values in the RAR image, as suggested by Schulz-Stellenfleth (2001). Then, a comparison between the observed SAR cross-spectra and the ones simulated through Hasselmann's integral transform reveals that only twenty percents of the observations show a range-splitting effect as strong as in the simulations. A much better agreement is obtained when using the integral transform by Schulz-Stellenfleth (2003), which is based on a nonlinear hackscatter model

  6. Ground penetrating radar

    CERN Document Server

    Daniels, David J

    2004-01-01

    Ground-penetrating radar has come to public attention in recent criminal investigations, but has actually been a developing and maturing remote sensing field for some time. In the light of recent expansion of the technique to a wide range of applications, the need for an up-to-date reference has become pressing. This fully revised and expanded edition of the best-selling Surface-Penetrating Radar (IEE, 1996) presents, for the non-specialist user or engineer, all the key elements of this technique, which span several disciplines including electromagnetics, geophysics and signal processing. The

  7. Retrieving surface soil moisture at high spatio-temporal resolution from a synergy between Sentinel-1 radar and Landsat thermal data: A study case over bare soil

    KAUST Repository

    Amazirh, Abdelhakim; Merlin, Olivier; Er-Raki, Salah; Gao, Qi; Rivalland, Vincent; Malbeteau, Yoann; Khabba, Said; Escorihuela, Maria José

    2018-01-01

    Radar data have been used to retrieve and monitor the surface soil moisture (SM) changes in various conditions. However, the calibration of radar models whether empirically or physically-based, is still subject to large uncertainties especially

  8. Estimation of surface roughness in a semiarid region from C-band ERS-1 synthetic aperture radar data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    E. E. Sano

    1999-12-01

    Full Text Available In this study, we investigated the feasibility of using the C-band European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR data to estimate surface soil roughness in a semiarid rangeland. Radar backscattering coefficients were extracted from a dry and a wet season SAR image and were compared with 47 in situ soil roughness measurements obtained in the rocky soils of the Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed, southeastern Arizona, USA. Both the dry and the wet season SAR data showed exponential relationships with root mean square (RMS height measurements. The dry C-band ERS-1 SAR data were strongly correlated (R² = 0.80, while the wet season SAR data have somewhat higher secondary variation (R² = 0.59. This lower correlation was probably provoked by the stronger influence of soil moisture, which may not be negligible in the wet season SAR data. We concluded that the single configuration C-band SAR data is useful to estimate surface roughness of rocky soils in a semiarid rangeland.

  9. The use of radar and visual observations to characterize the surface structure of the planet Mercury

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clark, P. E.; Kobrick, M.; Jurgens, R. F.

    1985-01-01

    An analysis is conducted of available topographic profiles and scattering parameters derived from earth-based S- and X-band radar observations of Mercury, in order to determine the nature and origin of regional surface variations and structures that are typical of the planet. Attention is given to the proposal that intercrater plains on Mercury formed from extensive volcanic flooding during bombardment, so that most craters were formed on a partially molten surface and were thus obliterated, together with previously formed tectonic features.

  10. Compressive Strength of Cometary Surfaces Derived from Radar Observations

    Science.gov (United States)

    ElShafie, A.; Heggy, E.

    2014-12-01

    Landing on a comet nucleus and probing it, mechanically using harpoons, penetrometers and drills, and electromagnetically using low frequency radar waves is a complex task that will be tackled by the Rosetta mission for Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The mechanical properties (i.e. density, porosity and compressive strength) and the electrical properties (i.e. the real and imaginary parts of the dielectric constant) of the comet nucleus, constrain both the mechanical and electromagnetic probing capabilities of Rosetta, as well as the choice of landing site, the safety of the landing, and subsurface data interpretation. During landing, the sounding radar data that will be collected by Rosetta's CONSERT experiment can be used to probe the comet's upper regolith layer by assessing its dielectric properties, which are then inverted to retrieve the surface mechanical properties. These observations can help characterize the mechanical properties of the landing site, which will optimize the operation of the anchor system. In this effort, we correlate the mechanical and electrical properties of cometary analogs to each other, and derive an empirical model that can be used to retrieve density, porosity and compressive strength from the dielectric properties of the upper regolith inverted from CONSERT observations during the landing phase. In our approach we consider snow as a viable cometary material analog due to its low density and its porous nature. Therefore, we used the compressive strength and dielectric constant measurements conducted on snow at a temperature of 250 K and a density range of 0.4-0.9 g/cm3 in order to investigate the relation between compressive strength and dielectric constant under cometary-relevant density range. Our results suggest that compressive strength increases linearly as function of the dielectric constant over the observed density range mentioned above. The minimum and maximum compressive strength of 0.5 and 4.5 MPa corresponded to a

  11. Foliage penetration radar detection and characterization of objects under trees

    CERN Document Server

    Davis, Mark

    2011-01-01

    This book covers all aspects of foliage penetration (FOPEN) radar, concentrating on both airborne military radar systems as well as earth resource mapping radars. It is the first concise and thorough treatment of FOPEN, covering the results of a decade-long investment by DARPA in characterizing foliage and earth surface with ultrawideband UHF and VHF synthetic aperture radar (SAR).

  12. Comet radar explorer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farnham, Tony; Asphaug, Erik; Barucci, Antonella; Belton, Mike; Bockelee-Morvan, Dominique; Brownlee, Donald; Capria, Maria Teresa; Carter, Lynn; Chesley, Steve; Farnham, Tony; Gaskell, Robert; Gim, Young; Heggy, Essam; Herique, Alain; Klaasen, Ken; Kofman, Wlodek; Kreslavsky, Misha; Lisse, Casey; Orosei, Roberto; Plaut, Jeff; Scheeres, Dan

    The Comet Radar Explorer (CORE) is designed to perform a comprehensive and detailed exploration of the interior, surface, and inner coma structures of a scientifically impor-tant Jupiter family comet. These structures will be used to investigate the origins of cometary nuclei, their physical and geological evolution, and the mechanisms driving their spectacular activity. CORE is a high heritage spacecraft, injected by solar electric propulsion into orbit around a comet. It is capable of coherent deep radar imaging at decameter wavelengths, high resolution stereo color imaging, and near-IR imaging spectroscopy. Its primary objective is to obtain a high-resolution map of the interior structure of a comet nucleus at a resolution of ¿100 elements across the diameter. This structure shall be related to the surface geology and morphology, and to the structural details of the coma proximal to the nucleus. This is an ideal complement to the science from recent comet missions, providing insight into how comets work. Knowing the structure of the interior of a comet-what's inside-and how cometary activity works, is required before we can understand the requirements for a cryogenic sample return mission. But more than that, CORE is fundamental to understanding the origin of comets and their evolution in time. The mission is made feasible at low cost by the use of now-standard MARSIS-SHARAD reflec-tion radar imaging hardware and data processing, together with proven flight heritage of solar electric propulsion. Radar flight heritage has been demonstrated by the MARSIS radar on Mars Express (Picardi et al., Science 2005; Plaut et al., Science 2007), the SHARAD radar onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (Seu et al., JGR 2007), and the LRS radar onboard Kaguya (Ono et al, EPS 2007). These instruments have discovered detailed subsurface structure to depths of several kilometers in a variety of terrains on Mars and the Moon. A reflection radar deployed in orbit about a comet

  13. The Comet Radar Explorer Mission

    Science.gov (United States)

    Asphaug, Erik; Belton, Mike; Bockelee-Morvan, Dominique; Chesley, Steve; Delbo, Marco; Farnham, Tony; Gim, Yonggyu; Grimm, Robert; Herique, Alain; Kofman, Wlodek; Oberst, Juergen; Orosei, Roberto; Piqueux, Sylvain; Plaut, Jeff; Robinson, Mark; Sava, Paul; Heggy, Essam; Kurth, William; Scheeres, Dan; Denevi, Brett; Turtle, Elizabeth; Weissman, Paul

    2014-11-01

    Missions to cometary nuclei have revealed major geological surprises: (1) Global scale layers - do these persist through to the interior? Are they a record of primary accretion? (2) Smooth regions - are they landslides originating on the surface? Are they cryovolcanic? (3) Pits - are they impact craters or sublimation pits, or rooted in the interior? Unambiguous answers to these and other questions can be obtained by high definition 3D radar reflection imaging (RRI) of internal structure. RRI can answer many of the great unknowns in planetary science: How do primitive bodies accrete? Are cometary nuclei mostly ice? What drives their spectacular activity and evolution? The Comet Radar Explorer (CORE) mission will image the detailed internal structure of the nucleus of 10P/Tempel 2. This ~16 x 8 x 7 km Jupiter Family Comet (JFC), or its parent body, originated in the outer planets region possibly millions of years before planet formation. CORE arrives post-perihelion and observes the comet’s waning activity from safe distance. Once the nucleus is largely dormant, the spacecraft enters a ~20-km dedicated Radar Mapping Orbit (RMO). The exacting design of the RRI experiment and the precise navigation of RMO will achieve a highly focused 3D radar reflection image of internal structure, to tens of meters resolution, and tomographic images of velocity and attenuation to hundreds of meters resolution, tied to the gravity model and shape. Visible imagers will produce maps of the surface morphology, albedo, color, texture, and photometric response, and images for navigation and shape determination. The cameras will also monitor the structure and dynamics of the coma, and its dusty jets, allowing their correlation in 3D with deep interior structures and surface features. Repeated global high-resolution thermal images will probe the near-surface layers heated by the Sun. Derived maps of thermal inertia will be correlated with the radar boundary response, and photometry and

  14. Laser radar IV; Proceedings of the Meeting, Orlando, FL, Mar. 29, 30, 1989

    Science.gov (United States)

    Becherer, Richard J.

    1989-09-01

    Various papers on laser radars are presented. Individual topics considered include: frequency chirp of a low-pressure hybrid TE CO2 laser, design of a high-power isotopic CO2 laser amplifier, monolithic beam steering for large aperture laser radar, laser radar receiver using a Digicon detector, all-solid-state CO2 laser driver, noise in an acoustooptic-modulated laser source, laser signature prediction using the Value computer program, laser radar acquisition and tracking, concept of a moving target indicator search ladar, system design philosophy for laser radar wavelength determination, imaging three-frequency CO2 laser radar, backscatter-modulation semiconductor laser radar, three-dimensional imaging using a single laser pulse, design and manufacture of a high-resolution laser radar scanner, calculations of vibrational signatures for coherent ladar, coherent subaperture ultraviolet imagery, and range-Doppler resolution degradation associated with amplitude distortion.

  15. Radar equations for modern radar

    CERN Document Server

    Barton, David K

    2012-01-01

    Based on the classic Radar Range-Performance Analysis from 1980, this practical volume extends that work to ensure applicability of radar equations to the design and analysis of modern radars. This unique book helps you identify what information on the radar and its environment is needed to predict detection range. Moreover, it provides equations and data to improve the accuracy of range calculations. You find detailed information on propagation effects, methods of range calculation in environments that include clutter, jamming and thermal noise, as well as loss factors that reduce radar perfo

  16. Comparison of FPS-16 radar/jimsphere and NASA's 50-MHz radar wind profiler turbulence indicators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Susko, Michael

    1993-01-01

    Measurements of the wind and turbulent regions from the surface to 16 km by the FPS-11 radar/jimsphere system are reported with particular attention given to the use of these turbulence and wind assessments to validate the NASA 50-MHz radar wind profiler. Wind profile statistics were compared at 150-m wavelengths, a wavelength validated from 20 jimspheres, simultaneously tracked by FPS-16 and FPQ-14 radar, and the resulting analysis of auto spectra, cross-spectra, and coherence squared spectra of the wind profiles. Results demonstrate that the NASA prototype wind profiler is an excellent monitoring device illustrating the measurements of the winds within 1/2 hour of launch zero.

  17. Use of radars to monitor stream discharge by noncontact methods

    Science.gov (United States)

    Costa, J.E.; Cheng, R.T.; Haeni, F.P.; Melcher, N.; Spicer, K.R.; Hayes, E.; Plant, W.; Hayes, K.; Teague, C.; Barrick, D.

    2006-01-01

    Conventional measurements of river flows are costly, time‐consuming, and frequently dangerous. This report evaluates the use of a continuous wave microwave radar, a monostatic UHF Doppler radar, a pulsed Doppler microwave radar, and a ground‐penetrating radar to measure river flows continuously over long periods and without touching the water with any instruments. The experiments duplicate the flow records from conventional stream gauging stations on the San Joaquin River in California and the Cowlitz River in Washington. The purpose of the experiments was to directly measure the parameters necessary to compute flow: surface velocity (converted to mean velocity) and cross‐sectional area, thereby avoiding the uncertainty, complexity, and cost of maintaining rating curves. River channel cross sections were measured by ground‐penetrating radar suspended above the river. River surface water velocity was obtained by Bragg scattering of microwave and UHF Doppler radars, and the surface velocity data were converted to mean velocity on the basis of detailed velocity profiles measured by current meters and hydroacoustic instruments. Experiments using these radars to acquire a continuous record of flow were conducted for 4 weeks on the San Joaquin River and for 16 weeks on the Cowlitz River. At the San Joaquin River the radar noncontact measurements produced discharges more than 20% higher than the other independent measurements in the early part of the experiment. After the first 3 days, the noncontact radar discharge measurements were within 5% of the rating values. On the Cowlitz River at Castle Rock, correlation coefficients between the USGS stream gauging station rating curve discharge and discharge computed from three different Doppler radar systems and GPR data over the 16 week experiment were 0.883, 0.969, and 0.992. Noncontact radar results were within a few percent of discharge values obtained by gauging station, current meter, and hydroacoustic methods

  18. Airborne Radar Observations of Severe Hailstorms: Implications for Future Spaceborne Radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heymsfield, Gerald M.; Tian, Lin; Li, Lihua; McLinden, Matthew; Cervantes, Jaime I.

    2013-01-01

    A new dual-frequency (Ku and Ka band) nadir-pointing Doppler radar on the high-altitude NASA ER-2 aircraft, called the High-Altitude Imaging Wind and Rain Airborne Profiler (HIWRAP), has collected data over severe thunderstorms in Oklahoma and Kansas during the Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E). The overarching motivation for this study is to understand the behavior of the dualwavelength airborne radar measurements in a global variety of thunderstorms and how these may relate to future spaceborne-radar measurements. HIWRAP is operated at frequencies that are similar to those of the precipitation radar on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (Ku band) and the upcoming Global Precipitation Measurement mission satellite's dual-frequency (Ku and Ka bands) precipitation radar. The aircraft measurements of strong hailstorms have been combined with ground-based polarimetric measurements to obtain a better understanding of the response of the Ku- and Ka-band radar to the vertical distribution of the hydrometeors, including hail. Data from two flight lines on 24 May 2011 are presented. Doppler velocities were approx. 39m/s2at 10.7-km altitude from the first flight line early on 24 May, and the lower value of approx. 25m/s on a second flight line later in the day. Vertical motions estimated using a fall speed estimate for large graupel and hail suggested that the first storm had an updraft that possibly exceeded 60m/s for the more intense part of the storm. This large updraft speed along with reports of 5-cm hail at the surface, reflectivities reaching 70 dBZ at S band in the storm cores, and hail signals from polarimetric data provide a highly challenging situation for spaceborne-radar measurements in intense convective systems. The Ku- and Ka-band reflectivities rarely exceed approx. 47 and approx. 37 dBZ, respectively, in these storms.

  19. Visual Information and Support Surface for Postural Control in Visual Search Task.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Chia-Chun; Yang, Chih-Mei

    2016-10-01

    When standing on a reduced support surface, people increase their reliance on visual information to control posture. This assertion was tested in the current study. The effects of imposed motion and support surface on postural control during visual search were investigated. Twelve participants (aged 21 ± 1.8 years; six men and six women) stood on a reduced support surface (45% base of support). In a room that moved back and forth along the anteroposterior axis, participants performed visual search for a given letter in an article. Postural sway variability and head-room coupling were measured. The results of head-room coupling, but not postural sway, supported the assertion that people increase reliance on visual information when standing on a reduced support surface. Whether standing on a whole or reduced surface, people stabilized their posture to perform the visual search tasks. Compared to a fixed target, searching on a hand-held target showed greater head-room coupling when standing on a reduced surface. © The Author(s) 2016.

  20. Aircraft height estimation using 2-D radar

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Hakl, H

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available A method to infer height information from an aircraft tracked with a single 2-D search radar is presented. The method assumes level flight in the target aircraft and a good estimate of the speed of the aircraft. The method yields good results...

  1. Orbital radar studies of paleodrainages in the central Namib Desert

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lancaster, N.; Schaber, G.G.; Teller, J.T.

    2000-01-01

    Orbital radar images of the central Namib Desert show clearly the extent of relict fluvial deposits associated with former courses of the Tsondab and Kuiseb rivers. South of the Kuiseb River, radar data show the existence of a drainage network developed in calcrete-cemented late Tertiary fluvial deposits. The sand-filled paleovalleys are imaged as radar-dark tones in contrast to the radar-bright interfluves where the calcreted gravels occur. The drainage network developed as a result of local runoff from indurated gravels and channeled surface and subsurface flow to the sites of the many interdune lacustrine deposits found in the area. (C) Elsevier Science Inc., 2000.Orbital radar images of the central Namib Desert show clearly the extent of relict fluvial deposits associated with former courses of the Tsondab and Kuiseb rivers. South of the Kuiseb River, radar data show the existence of a drainage network developed in calcrete-cemented late Tertiary fluvial deposits. The sand-filled paleovalleys are imaged as radar-dark tones in contrast to the radar-bright interfluves where the calcreted gravels occur. The drainage network developed as a result of local runoff from indurated gravels and channeled surface and subsurface flow to the sites of the many interdune lacustrine deposits found in the area.

  2. Efficient extraction of drainage networks from massive, radar-based elevation models with least cost path search

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Metz

    2011-02-01

    Full Text Available The availability of both global and regional elevation datasets acquired by modern remote sensing technologies provides an opportunity to significantly improve the accuracy of stream mapping, especially in remote, hard to reach regions. Stream extraction from digital elevation models (DEMs is based on computation of flow accumulation, a summary parameter that poses performance and accuracy challenges when applied to large, noisy DEMs generated by remote sensing technologies. Robust handling of DEM depressions is essential for reliable extraction of connected drainage networks from this type of data. The least-cost flow routing method implemented in GRASS GIS as the module r.watershed was redesigned to significantly improve its speed, functionality, and memory requirements and make it an efficient tool for stream mapping and watershed analysis from large DEMs. To evaluate its handling of large depressions, typical for remote sensing derived DEMs, three different methods were compared: traditional sink filling, impact reduction approach, and least-cost path search. The comparison was performed using the Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar for Elevation (IFSARE datasets covering central Panama at 90 m and 10 m resolutions, respectively. The accuracy assessment was based on ground control points acquired by GPS and reference points digitized from Landsat imagery along segments of selected Panamanian rivers. The results demonstrate that the new implementation of the least-cost path method is significantly faster than the original version, can cope with massive datasets, and provides the most accurate results in terms of stream locations validated against reference points.

  3. Phased-array radar design application of radar fundamentals

    CERN Document Server

    Jeffrey, Thomas

    2009-01-01

    Phased-Array Radar Design is a text-reference designed for electrical engineering graduate students in colleges and universities as well as for corporate in-house training programs for radar design engineers, especially systems engineers and analysts who would like to gain hands-on, practical knowledge and skills in radar design fundamentals, advanced radar concepts, trade-offs for radar design and radar performance analysis.

  4. Direction Finding for Bistatic MIMO Radar with Uniform Circular Array

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cao Yunhe

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available A method of direction of arrival (DOA and direction of departure (DOD angle estimation based on polynomial rooting for bistatic multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO radar with uniform circular array (UCA configuration is proposed in this paper. The steering vector of the UCA is firstly transformed into a steering vector with a Vandermonde structure by using the Jacobi-Anger expansion. Then the null-spectrum function of the MIMO radar can be written as an expression in which the transmit and receive steering vectors are decoupled. Finally, a two-step polynomial rooting is used to estimate DOA and DOD of targets instead of two-dimensional multiple signal classification (MUSIC search method for bistatic UCA MIMO radar. The angle estimation performance of the proposed method is similar to that of the MUSIC spectral search method, but the computation burden of the proposed polynomial rooting algorithm is much lower than that of the conventional MUSIC method. The simulation results of the proposed algorithm are presented and the performances are investigated and analyzed.

  5. A Semiautomated Multilayer Picking Algorithm for Ice-sheet Radar Echograms Applied to Ground-Based Near-Surface Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Onana, Vincent De Paul; Koenig, Lora Suzanne; Ruth, Julia; Studinger, Michael; Harbeck, Jeremy P.

    2014-01-01

    Snow accumulation over an ice sheet is the sole mass input, making it a primary measurement for understanding the past, present, and future mass balance. Near-surface frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radars image isochronous firn layers recording accumulation histories. The Semiautomated Multilayer Picking Algorithm (SAMPA) was designed and developed to trace annual accumulation layers in polar firn from both airborne and ground-based radars. The SAMPA algorithm is based on the Radon transform (RT) computed by blocks and angular orientations over a radar echogram. For each echogram's block, the RT maps firn segmented-layer features into peaks, which are picked using amplitude and width threshold parameters of peaks. A backward RT is then computed for each corresponding block, mapping the peaks back into picked segmented-layers. The segmented layers are then connected and smoothed to achieve a final layer pick across the echogram. Once input parameters are trained, SAMPA operates autonomously and can process hundreds of kilometers of radar data picking more than 40 layers. SAMPA final pick results and layer numbering still require a cursory manual adjustment to correct noncontinuous picks, which are likely not annual, and to correct for inconsistency in layer numbering. Despite the manual effort to train and check SAMPA results, it is an efficient tool for picking multiple accumulation layers in polar firn, reducing time over manual digitizing efforts. The trackability of good detected layers is greater than 90%.

  6. An Improved Semi-Empirical Model for Radar Backscattering from Rough Sea Surfaces at X-Band

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Taekyeong Jin

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available We propose an improved semi-empirical scattering model for X-band radar backscattering from rough sea surfaces. This new model has a wider validity range of wind speeds than does the existing semi-empirical sea spectrum (SESS model. First, we retrieved the small-roughness parameters from the sea surfaces, which were numerically generated using the Pierson-Moskowitz spectrum and measurement datasets for various wind speeds. Then, we computed the backscattering coefficients of the small-roughness surfaces for various wind speeds using the integral equation method model. Finally, the large-roughness characteristics were taken into account by integrating the small-roughness backscattering coefficients multiplying them with the surface slope probability density function for all possible surface slopes. The new model includes a wind speed range below 3.46 m/s, which was not covered by the existing SESS model. The accuracy of the new model was verified with two measurement datasets for various wind speeds from 0.5 m/s to 14 m/s.

  7. Weather Radar Adjustment Using Runoff from Urban Surfaces

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ahm, Malte; Rasmussen, Michael Robdrup

    2017-01-01

    Weather radar data used for urban drainage applications are traditionally adjusted to point ground references, e.g., rain gauges. However, the available rain gauge density for the adjustment is often low, which may lead to significant representativeness errors. Yet, in many urban catchments, rain...

  8. First upper limits on the radar cross section of cosmic-ray induced extensive air showers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abbasi, R. U.; Abe, M.; Abou Bakr Othman, M.; Abu-Zayyad, T.; Allen, M.; Anderson, R.; Azuma, R.; Barcikowski, E.; Belz, J. W.; Bergman, D. R.; Besson, D.; Blake, S. A.; Byrne, M.; Cady, R.; Chae, M. J.; Cheon, B. G.; Chiba, J.; Chikawa, M.; Cho, W. R.; Farhang-Boroujeny, B.; Fujii, T.; Fukushima, M.; Gillman, W. H.; Goto, T.; Hanlon, W.; Hanson, J. C.; Hayashi, Y.; Hayashida, N.; Hibino, K.; Honda, K.; Ikeda, D.; Inoue, N.; Ishii, T.; Ishimori, R.; Ito, H.; Ivanov, D.; Jayanthmurthy, C.; Jui, C. C. H.; Kadota, K.; Kakimoto, F.; Kalashev, O.; Kasahara, K.; Kawai, H.; Kawakami, S.; Kawana, S.; Kawata, K.; Kido, E.; Kim, H. B.; Kim, J. H.; Kim, J. H.; Kitamura, S.; Kitamura, Y.; Kunwar, S.; Kuzmin, V.; Kwon, Y. J.; Lan, J.; Lim, S. I.; Lundquist, J. P.; Machida, K.; Martens, K.; Matsuda, T.; Matsuyama, T.; Matthews, J. N.; Minamino, M.; Mukai, K.; Myers, I.; Nagasawa, K.; Nagataki, S.; Nakamura, T.; Nonaka, T.; Nozato, A.; Ogio, S.; Ogura, J.; Ohnishi, M.; Ohoka, H.; Oki, K.; Okuda, T.; Ono, M.; Oshima, A.; Ozawa, S.; Park, I. H.; Prohira, S.; Pshirkov, M. S.; Rezazadeh-Reyhani, A.; Rodriguez, D. C.; Rubtsov, G.; Ryu, D.; Sagawa, H.; Sakurai, N.; Sampson, A. L.; Scott, L. M.; Schurig, D.; Shah, P. D.; Shibata, F.; Shibata, T.; Shimodaira, H.; Shin, B. K.; Smith, J. D.; Sokolsky, P.; Springer, R. W.; Stokes, B. T.; Stratton, S. R.; Stroman, T. A.; Suzawa, T.; Takai, H.; Takamura, M.; Takeda, M.; Takeishi, R.; Taketa, A.; Takita, M.; Tameda, Y.; Tanaka, H.; Tanaka, K.; Tanaka, M.; Thomas, S. B.; Thomson, G. B.; Tinyakov, P.; Tkachev, I.; Tokuno, H.; Tomida, T.; Troitsky, S.; Tsunesada, Y.; Tsutsumi, K.; Uchihori, Y.; Udo, S.; Urban, F.; Vasiloff, G.; Venkatesh, S.; Wong, T.; Yamane, R.; Yamaoka, H.; Yamazaki, K.; Yang, J.; Yashiro, K.; Yoneda, Y.; Yoshida, S.; Yoshii, H.; Zollinger, R.; Zundel, Z.

    2017-01-01

    TARA (Telescope Array Radar) is a cosmic ray radar detection experiment colocated with Telescope Array, the conventional surface scintillation detector (SD) and fluorescence telescope detector (FD) near Delta, Utah, U.S.A. The TARA detector combines a 40 kW, 54.1 MHz VHF transmitter and high-gain transmitting antenna which broadcasts the radar carrier over the SD array and within the FD field of view, towards a 250 MS/s DAQ receiver. TARA has been collecting data since 2013 with the primary goal of observing the radar signatures of extensive air showers (EAS). Simulations indicate that echoes are expected to be short in duration (∼ 10 μs) and exhibit rapidly changing frequency, with rates on the order 1 MHz/μs. The EAS radar cross-section (RCS) is currently unknown although it is the subject of over 70 years of speculation. A novel signal search technique is described in which the expected radar echo of a particular air shower is used as a matched filter template and compared to waveforms obtained by triggering the radar DAQ using the Telescope Array fluorescence detector. No evidence for the scattering of radio frequency radiation by EAS is obtained to date. We report the first quantitative RCS upper limits using EAS that triggered the Telescope Array Fluorescence Detector. The transmitter is under the direct control of experimenters, and in a radio-quiet area isolated from other radio frequency (RF) sources. The power and radiation pattern are known at all times. Forward power up to 40 kW and gain exceeding 20 dB maximize energy density in the radar field. Continuous wave (CW) transmission gives 100% duty cycle, as opposed to pulsed radar. TARA utilizes a high sample rate DAQ (250 MS/s). TARA is colocated with a large state-of-the-art conventional CR observatory, allowing the radar data stream to be sampled at the arrival times of known cosmic ray events. Each of these attributes of the TARA detector has been discussed in detail in the literature [8]. A map

  9. Smoothing Motion Estimates for Radar Motion Compensation.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Doerry, Armin W. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

    2017-07-01

    Simple motion models for complex motion environments are often not adequate for keeping radar data coherent. Eve n perfect motion samples appli ed to imperfect models may lead to interim calculations e xhibiting errors that lead to degraded processing results. Herein we discuss a specific i ssue involving calculating motion for groups of pulses, with measurements only available at pulse-group boundaries. - 4 - Acknowledgements This report was funded by General A tomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) Mission Systems under Cooperative Re search and Development Agre ement (CRADA) SC08/01749 between Sandia National Laboratories and GA-ASI. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), an affilia te of privately-held General Atomics, is a leading manufacturer of Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) systems, radars, and electro-optic and rel ated mission systems, includin g the Predator(r)/Gray Eagle(r)-series and Lynx(r) Multi-mode Radar.

  10. Ground Penetrating Radar Technologies in Ukraine

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pochanin, Gennadiy P.; Masalov, Sergey A.

    2014-05-01

    Transient electromagnetic fields are of great interest in Ukraine. The following topics are studied by research teams, with high-level achievements all over the world: (i) Ultra-Wide Band/Short-pulse radar techniques (IRE and LLC "Transient Technologies", for more information please visit http://applied.ire.kharkov.ua/radar%20systems_their%20components%20and%20relevant%20technologies_e.html and http://viy.ua); (ii) Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) with stepped frequency sounding signals (IRE); (iii) Continuous-Wave (CW) radar with phase-shift keying signals (IRE); and (iv) Radio-wave interference investigation (Scientific and Technical Centre of The Subsurface Investigation, http://geophysics.ua). GPR applications are mainly in search works, for example GPR is often used to search for treasures. It is also used to identify leaks and diffusion of petroleum in soil, in storage areas, as well as for fault location of pipelines. Furthermore, GPR is used for the localization of underground utilities and for diagnostics of the technical state of hydro dams. Deeper GPR probing was performed to identify landslides in Crimea. Rescue radar with CW signal was designed in IRE to search for living people trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings. The fourth version of this radar has been recently created, showing higher stability and noise immunity. Radio-wave interference investigation allows studying the soil down to tens of meters. It is possible to identify areas with increased conductivity (moisture) of the soil. LLC "Transient Technologies" is currently working with Shevchenko Kyiv University on a cooperation program in which the construction of a test site is one of the planned tasks. In the framework of this program, a GPR with a 300 MHz antenna was handed to the geological Faculty of the University. Employees of "Transient Technologies" held introductory lectures with a practical demonstration for students majoring in geophysics. The authors participated to GPR

  11. Annual Greenland Accumulation Rates (2009-2012) from Airborne Snow Radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koenig, Lora S.; Ivanoff, Alvaro; Alexander, Patrick M.; MacGregor, Joseph A.; Fettweis, Xavier; Panzer, Ben; Paden, John D.; Forster, Richard R.; Das, Indrani; McConnell, Joseph R.; hide

    2016-01-01

    Contemporary climate warming over the Arctic is accelerating mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet through increasing surface melt, emphasizing the need to closely monitor its surface mass balance in order to improve sea-level rise predictions. Snow accumulation is the largest component of the ice sheet's surface mass balance, but in situ observations thereof are inherently sparse and models are difficult to evaluate at large scales. Here, we quantify recent Greenland accumulation rates using ultra-wideband (2-6.5 gigahertz) airborne snow radar data collected as part of NASA's Operation IceBridge between 2009 and 2012. We use a semi-automated method to trace the observed radiostratigraphy and then derive annual net accumulation rates for 2009-2012. The uncertainty in these radar-derived accumulation rates is on average 14 percent. A comparison of the radarderived accumulation rates and contemporaneous ice cores shows that snow radar captures both the annual and longterm mean accumulation rate accurately. A comparison with outputs from a regional climate model (MAR - Modele Atmospherique Regional for Greenland and vicinity) shows that this model matches radar-derived accumulation rates in the ice sheet interior but produces higher values over southeastern Greenland. Our results demonstrate that snow radar can efficiently and accurately map patterns of snow accumulation across an ice sheet and that it is valuable for evaluating the accuracy of surface mass balance models.

  12. Reduction and coding of synthetic aperture radar data with Fourier transforms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tilley, David G.

    1995-01-01

    Recently, aboard the Space Radar Laboratory (SRL), the two roles of Fourier Transforms for ocean image synthesis and surface wave analysis have been implemented with a dedicated radar processor to significantly reduce Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) ocean data before transmission to the ground. The object was to archive the SAR image spectrum, rather than the SAR image itself, to reduce data volume and capture the essential descriptors of the surface wave field. SAR signal data are usually sampled and coded in the time domain for transmission to the ground where Fourier Transforms are applied both to individual radar pulses and to long sequences of radar pulses to form two-dimensional images. High resolution images of the ocean often contain no striking features and subtle image modulations by wind generated surface waves are only apparent when large ocean regions are studied, with Fourier transforms, to reveal periodic patterns created by wind stress over the surface wave field. Major ocean currents and atmospheric instability in coastal environments are apparent as large scale modulations of SAR imagery. This paper explores the possibility of computing complex Fourier spectrum codes representing SAR images, transmitting the coded spectra to Earth for data archives and creating scenes of surface wave signatures and air-sea interactions via inverse Fourier transformations with ground station processors.

  13. Radar Location Equipment Development Program: Phase I

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sandness, G.A.; Davis, K.C.

    1985-06-01

    The work described in this report represents the first phase of a planned three-phase project designed to develop a radar system for monitoring waste canisters stored in a thick layer of bedded salt at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, New Mexico. The canisters will be contained in holes drilled into the floor of the underground waste storage facility. It is hoped that these measurements can be made to accuracies of +-5 cm and +-2/sup 0/, respectively. The initial phase of this project was primarily a feasibility study. Its principal objective was to evaluate the potential effectiveness of the radar method in the planned canister monitoring application. Its scope included an investigation of the characteristics of radar signals backscattered from waste canisters, a test of preliminary data analysis methods, an assessment of the effects of salt and bentonite (a proposed backfill material) on the propagation of the radar signals, and a review of current ground-penetrating radar technology. A laboratory experiment was performed in which radar signals were backscattered from simulated waste canisters. The radar data were recorded by a digital data acquisition system and were subsequently analyzed by three different computer-based methods to extract estimates of canister location and tilt. Each of these methods yielded results that were accurate within a few centimeters in canister location and within 1/sup 0/ in canister tilt. Measurements were also made to determine the signal propagation velocities in salt and bentonite (actually a bentonite/sand mixture) and to estimate the signal attenuation rate in the bentonite. Finally, a product survey and a literature search were made to identify available ground-penetrating radar systems and alternative antenna designs that may be particularly suitable for this unique application. 10 refs., 21 figs., 4 tabs.

  14. Radar Location Equipment Development Program: Phase I

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sandness, G.A.; Davis, K.C.

    1985-06-01

    The work described in this report represents the first phase of a planned three-phase project designed to develop a radar system for monitoring waste canisters stored in a thick layer of bedded salt at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, New Mexico. The canisters will be contained in holes drilled into the floor of the underground waste storage facility. It is hoped that these measurements can be made to accuracies of +-5 cm and +-2 0 , respectively. The initial phase of this project was primarily a feasibility study. Its principal objective was to evaluate the potential effectiveness of the radar method in the planned canister monitoring application. Its scope included an investigation of the characteristics of radar signals backscattered from waste canisters, a test of preliminary data analysis methods, an assessment of the effects of salt and bentonite (a proposed backfill material) on the propagation of the radar signals, and a review of current ground-penetrating radar technology. A laboratory experiment was performed in which radar signals were backscattered from simulated waste canisters. The radar data were recorded by a digital data acquisition system and were subsequently analyzed by three different computer-based methods to extract estimates of canister location and tilt. Each of these methods yielded results that were accurate within a few centimeters in canister location and within 1 0 in canister tilt. Measurements were also made to determine the signal propagation velocities in salt and bentonite (actually a bentonite/sand mixture) and to estimate the signal attenuation rate in the bentonite. Finally, a product survey and a literature search were made to identify available ground-penetrating radar systems and alternative antenna designs that may be particularly suitable for this unique application. 10 refs., 21 figs., 4 tabs

  15. HF Radar Sea-echo from Shallow Water

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Josh Kohut

    2008-08-01

    Full Text Available HF radar systems are widely and routinely used for the measurement of ocean surface currents and waves. Analysis methods presently in use are based on the assumption of infinite water depth, and may therefore be inadequate close to shore where the radar echo is strongest. In this paper, we treat the situation when the radar echo is returned from ocean waves that interact with the ocean floor. Simulations are described which demonstrate the effect of shallow water on radar sea-echo. These are used to investigate limits on the existing theory and to define water depths at which shallow-water effects become significant. The second-order spectral energy increases relative to the first-order as the water depth decreases, resulting in spectral saturation when the waveheight exceeds a limit defined by the radar transmit frequency. This effect is particularly marked for lower radar transmit frequencies. The saturation limit on waveheight is less for shallow water. Shallow water affects second-order spectra (which gives wave information far more than first-order (which gives information on current velocities, the latter being significantly affected only for the lowest radar transmit frequencies for extremely shallow water. We describe analysis of radar echo from shallow water measured by a Rutgers University HF radar system to give ocean wave spectral estimates. Radar-derived wave height, period and direction are compared with simultaneous shallow-water in-situ measurements.

  16. Surface water classification and monitoring using polarimetric synthetic aperture radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Irwin, Katherine Elizabeth

    Surface water classification using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is an established practice for monitoring flood hazards due to the high temporal and spatial resolution it provides. Surface water change is a dynamic process that varies both spatially and temporally, and can occur on various scales resulting in significant impacts on affected areas. Small-scale flooding hazards, caused by beaver dam failure, is an example of surface water change, which can impact nearby infrastructure and ecosystems. Assessing these hazards is essential to transportation and infrastructure maintenance. With current satellite missions operating in multiple polarizations, spatio-temporal resolutions, and frequencies, a comprehensive comparison between SAR products for surface water monitoring is necessary. In this thesis, surface water extent models derived from high resolution single-polarization TerraSAR-X (TSX) data, medium resolution dual-polarization TSX data and low resolution quad-polarization RADARSAT-2 (RS-2) data are compared. There exists a compromise between acquiring SAR data with a high resolution or high information content. Multi-polarization data provides additional phase and intensity information, which makes it possible to better classify areas of flooded vegetation and wetlands. These locations are often where fluctuations in surface water occur and are essential for understanding dynamic underlying processes. However, often multi-polarized data is acquired at a low resolution, which cannot image these zones effectively. High spatial resolution, single-polarization TSX data provides the best model of open water. However, these single-polarization observations have limited information content and are affected by shadow and layover errors. This often hinders the classification of other land cover types. The dual-polarization TSX data allows for the classification of flooded vegetation, but classification is less accurate compared to the quad-polarization RS-2 data

  17. Hourly surface currents measured by high frequency Wellen radars off western Oahu, Hawaii, from September 2002 to May 2003 (NODC Accession 0013113)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — A pair of High Frequency Wellen radars (WERA) shore-based at southwest Oahu (Ko'Olina) and northwest Oahu (Kaena), Hawaii measured surface currents over a nine-month...

  18. Quantitative analysis of ground penetrating radar data in the Mu Us Sandland

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fu, Tianyang; Tan, Lihua; Wu, Yongqiu; Wen, Yanglei; Li, Dawei; Duan, Jinlong

    2018-06-01

    Ground penetrating radar (GPR), which can reveal the sedimentary structure and development process of dunes, is widely used to evaluate aeolian landforms. The interpretations for GPR profiles are mostly based on qualitative descriptions of geometric features of the radar reflections. This research quantitatively analyzed the waveform parameter characteristics of different radar units by extracting the amplitude and time interval parameters of GPR data in the Mu Us Sandland in China, and then identified and interpreted different sedimentary structures. The results showed that different types of radar units had specific waveform parameter characteristics. The main waveform parameter characteristics of sand dune radar facies and sandstone radar facies included low amplitudes and wide ranges of time intervals, ranging from 0 to 0.25 and 4 to 33 ns respectively, and the mean amplitudes changed gradually with time intervals. The amplitude distribution curves of various sand dune radar facies were similar as unimodal distributions. The radar surfaces showed high amplitudes with time intervals concentrated in high-value areas, ranging from 0.08 to 0.61 and 9 to 34 ns respectively, and the mean amplitudes changed drastically with time intervals. The amplitude and time interval values of lacustrine radar facies were between that of sand dune radar facies and radar surfaces, ranging from 0.08 to 0.29 and 11 to 30 ns respectively, and the mean amplitude and time interval curve was approximately trapezoidal. The quantitative extraction and analysis of GPR reflections could help distinguish various radar units and provide evidence for identifying sedimentary structure in aeolian landforms.

  19. Aercibo S-band radar program

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Campbell, D.B.

    1988-01-01

    The high powered 12.6 cm wavelength radar on the 1000-ft Arecibo reflector is utilized for a number of solar system studies. Chief among these are: (1) surface reflectivity mapping of Venus, Mercury and the Moon. Resolutions achievable on Venus are less than 1.5 km over some areas, for Mercury about 30 km and for the Moon 200 m at present, (2) high time resolution ranging measurements to the surfaces of the terrestrial planets. These measurements are used to obtain profiles and scattering parameters in the equatorial region. They can also be used to test relativistic and gravitational theories by monitoring the rate of advance of the perihelion of the orbit of Mercury and placing limits on the stability of the gravitational constant, (3) measurements of the orbital parameters, figure, spin vector and surface properties of asteroids and comets, and (4) observations of the Galilean Satellites of Jupiter and the satellites of Mars, Phobos and Deimos. The Galilean Satellites of Jupiter were re-observed with the 12.6 cm radar for the first time since 1981. Much more accurate measurements of the scattering properties of the three icy satellites were obtained that generally confirmed previous observations. Unambiguous measurements of the cross section and circular polarizations ratio of Io were also obtained for the first time. The radar scattering properties of four mainbelt asteroids and one near-earth asteroid were studied

  20. Quantum radar

    CERN Document Server

    Lanzagorta, Marco

    2011-01-01

    This book offers a concise review of quantum radar theory. Our approach is pedagogical, making emphasis on the physics behind the operation of a hypothetical quantum radar. We concentrate our discussion on the two major models proposed to date: interferometric quantum radar and quantum illumination. In addition, this book offers some new results, including an analytical study of quantum interferometry in the X-band radar region with a variety of atmospheric conditions, a derivation of a quantum radar equation, and a discussion of quantum radar jamming.This book assumes the reader is familiar w

  1. Maritime target and sea clutter measurements with a coherent Doppler polarimetric surveillance radar

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Smith, A.J.E.; Gelsema, S.J.; Kester, L.J.H.M.; Melief, H.W.; Premel Cabic, G.; Theil, A.; Woudenberg, E.

    2002-01-01

    Doppler polarimetry in a surveillance radar for the maritime surface picture is considered. This radar must be able to detect low-RCS targets in littoral environments. Measurements on such targets have been conducted with a coherent polarimetric measurement radar in March 2001 and preliminary

  2. Detection of buried pipes by polarimetric borehole radar; Polarimetric borehole radar ni yoru maisetsukan no kenshutsu jikken

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sato, M.; Niitsuma, H. [Tohoku University, Sendai (Japan); Nakauchi, T. [Osaka Gas Co. Ltd., Osaka (Japan)

    1997-05-27

    If the borehole radar is utilized for detection of buried pipes, the underground radar measurement becomes possible even in the situation where the mesurement on the earth surface is difficult, for example, such a place as under the road where there is much traffic. However, since buried pipes are horizontally installed and the existing borehole radar can send/receive only vertical polarization, the measurement conducted comes to be poor in efficiency from a viewpoint of the polarization utilization. Therefore, by introducing the polarimetric borehole radar to the detection of buried pipes, a basic experiment was conducted for the effective detection of horizontal buried pipes. Proposing the use of a slot antenna which can send/receive horizontal polarization in borehole in addition to a dipole antenna which sends/receives vertical polarization, developed was a step frequency type continuous wave radar of a network analyzer basis. As a result of the experiment, it was confirmed that reflection from buried pipes is largely dependent on polarization. Especially, it was found that in the slot dipole cross polarization mesurement, reflection from buried pipes can be emphasized. 4 refs., 5 figs.

  3. Foundation Investigation for Ground Based Radar Project-Kwajalein Island, Marshall Islands

    Science.gov (United States)

    1990-04-01

    iL_ COPY MISCELLANEOUS PAPER GL-90-5 i iFOUNDATION INVESTIGATION FOR GROUND BASED RADAR PROJECT--KWAJALEIN ISLAND, MARSHALL ISLANDS by Donald E...C!assification) Foundatioa Investigation for Ground Based Radar Project -- Kwajalein Island, Marshall Islands 12. PERSONAL AUTHOR(S) Yule, Donald E...investigation for the Ground Based Radar Project -- Kwajalein Island, Marshall Islands , are presented.- eophysical tests comprised of surface refrac- tion

  4. Titan’s mid-latitude surface regions with Cassini VIMS and RADAR

    Science.gov (United States)

    Solomonidou, Anezina; Lopes, Rosaly M. C.; Coustenis, Athena; Malaska, Michael; Rodriguez, Sebastien; Maltagliati, Luca; Drossart, Pierre; Janssen, Michael; Lawrence, Kenneth; Jaumann, Ralf; Sohl, Frank; Stephan, Katrin; Brown, Robert H.; Bratsolis, Emmanuel; Matsoukas, Christos

    2015-11-01

    The Cassini-Huygens mission instruments have revealed Titan to have a complex and dynamic atmosphere and surface. Data from the remote sensing instruments have shown the presence of diverse surface terrains in terms of morphology and composition, suggesting both exogenic and endogenic processes [1]. We define both the surface and atmospheric contributions in the VIMS spectro-imaging data by use of a radiative transfer code in the near-IR range [2]. To complement this dataset, the Cassini RADAR instrument provides additional information on the surface morphology, from which valuable geological interpretations can be obtained [3]. We examine the origin of key Titan terrains, covering the mid-latitude zones extending from 50ºN to 50ºS. The different geological terrains we investigate include: mountains, plains, labyrinths, craters, dune fields, and possible cryovolcanic and/or evaporite features. We have found that the labyrinth terrains and the undifferentiated plains seem to consist of a very similar if not the same material, while the different types of plains show compositional variations [3]. The processes most likely linked to their formation are aeolian, fluvial, sedimentary, lacustrine, in addition to the deposition of atmospheric products though the process of photolysis and sedimentation of organics. We show that temporal variations of surface albedo exist for two of the candidate cryovolcanic regions. The surface albedo variations together with the presence of volcanic-like morphological features suggest that the active regions are possibly related to the deep interior, possibly via cryovolcanism processes (with important implications for the satellite’s astrobiological potential) as also indicated by new interior structure models of Titan and corresponding calculations of the spatial pattern of maximum tidal stresses [4]. However, an explanation attributed to exogenic processes is also possible [5]. We will report on results from our most recent

  5. Long-wavelength Radar Studies of the Lunar Maria

    Science.gov (United States)

    Campbell, Bruce A.; Hawke, B. Ray; Thompson, Thomas W.

    1995-01-01

    Radar measurements at 70 cm and 7.5 m wavelengths provide insight into the structure and chemical properties of the upper 5-100 m of the lunar regolith and crust. Past work has identified a number of anomalous regions and changes in echo strength, some attributed to differences in titanium content. There has been little opportunity, however, to compare calibrated long-wavelength backscatter among different units or to theoretical model results. We combine recent high-resolution (3-5 km) 70-cm radar data for the nearside with earlier calibrated full-disk observations to provide a reasonable estimate of the true lunar backscatter coefficient. These data are tested against models for quasi-specular scattering from the surface, echoes from a buried substrate, and Mie scattering from surface and buried rocks. We find that 70 cm echoes likely arise from Mie scattering by distributed rocks within the soil, consistent with earlier hypotheses. Returns from a buried substrate would provide a plausible fit to the observations only if the regolith depth were 3 m or less and varied little across the maria. Depolarized echoes are due to some combination of single and multiple scattering events, but it appears that single scattering alone could account for the observed echo power, based on comparisons with terrestrial rocky surfaces. Backscatter strength from the regolith is most strongly affected by the loss tangent, whose variation with mineral content is still poorly defined. We compared the backscatter values for the mare deposits to the oxide contents inferred from spectral ratio methods, and found that in general the unit boundaries evident in radar images closely follow those seen in color difference images. The 70-cm data are not well correlated with TiO2 values found using the Charette relationship nor with Fe abundances derived from Clementine observations. The lack of a relationship between radar echo and Fe content is reasonable given the distribution of iron among

  6. Comparison between HF radar current data and moored ADCP currentmeter

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cosoli, S.

    2005-01-01

    A preliminary assessment of accuracy of a two-sites shore-based HF Radar network along the Venice Lagoon littoral was attempted by means of comparison with a 57.5 day-long ADCP current time series for the period September-October 2002. Results showed that radar measurements were accurate ( O . The main differences between the HF radar and surface ADCP currents can be explained in terms of random errors affecting the measurement technique and the daily sea breeze forcing, since low-pass filtering of current time series significantly improved the correlation and decreased the RMS of the differences between the two measured data set. Comparison of the semidiurnal (M2, S2) tidal band suggested good agreement between tidal ellipse amplitudes. Wind forcing on a daily time-scale (sea-breeze) was associated with larger differences between radar and ADCP currents at a diurnal band due to the presence of a vertical shear in the surface layer

  7. Software Radar Technology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tang Jun

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, the definition and the key features of Software Radar, which is a new concept, are proposed and discussed. We consider the development of modern radar system technology to be divided into three stages: Digital Radar, Software radar and Intelligent Radar, and the second stage is just commencing now. A Software Radar system should be a combination of various modern digital modular components conformed to certain software and hardware standards. Moreover, a software radar system with an open system architecture supporting to decouple application software and low level hardware would be easy to adopt "user requirements-oriented" developing methodology instead of traditional "specific function-oriented" developing methodology. Compared with traditional Digital Radar, Software Radar system can be easily reconfigured and scaled up or down to adapt to the changes of requirements and technologies. A demonstration Software Radar signal processing system, RadarLab 2.0, which has been developed by Tsinghua University, is introduced in this paper and the suggestions for the future development of Software Radar in China are also given in the conclusion.

  8. Development of Coatings for Radar Absorbing Materials at X-band

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kumar, Abhishek; Singh, Samarjit

    2018-03-01

    The present review gives a brief account on some of the technical features of radar absorbing materials (RAMs). The paper has been presented with a concentrated approach towards the material aspects for achieving enhanced radar absorption characteristics for its application as a promising candidate in stealth technology and electromagnetic interference (EMI) minimization problems. The effect of metal particles doping/dispersion in the ferrites and dielectrics has been discussed for obtaining tunable radar absorbing characteristics. A short theoretical overview on the development of absorber materials, implementation of genetic algorithm (GA) in multi-layering and frequency selective surfaces (FSSs) based multi-layer has also been presented for the development of radar absorbing coatings for achieving better absorption augmented with broadband features in order to counter the radar detection systems.

  9. Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances Observed by Midlatitude SuperDARN Radars

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frissell, N. A.; Baker, J. B.; Ruohoniemi, J. M.; West, M. L.; Bristow, W. A.

    2012-12-01

    Medium Scale Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances (MSTIDs) are wave-like perturbations of the F-region ionosphere with horizontal wavelengths on the order of 100-250 km and periods between ~15 - 60 min, and are generally thought to be the ionospheric manifestation of Atmospheric Gravity Waves (AGWs). High-latitude MSTIDs have been studied using SuperDARN radars since 1989, and are typically attributed to auroral sources and propagated by the Earth Reflected Wave (ERW) mode. Tropospheric sources and earthquakes are also known to be sources of MSTIDs. Observations of MSTIDs using both mid- and high- latitude SuperDARN radars are presented. North American radar data from November 2010 - November 2011 were searched for signatures of MSTIDs. Initial results suggest that MSTIDs are observed at high latitudes primarily in the fall/winter months, which is consistent with published results. This search also reveals that mid-latitude MSTIDs often appear concurrently with high-latitude MSTIDs and share similar wave parameters. During the fall/winter months, SuperDARN mid-latitude MSTIDs appear more often than high-latitude MSTIDs, likely due to calmer ionospheric conditions at mid-latitudes. In the springtime, SuperDARN-observed MSTIDs are less likely to be seen at high-latitudes, but still appear at mid-latitudes. Selected events are analyzed for wave parameters using the Multiple Signal Classification (MUSIC) technique.

  10. Surface detection performance evaluation of pseudo-random noise continuous wave laser radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mitev, Valentin; Matthey, Renaud; Pereira do Carmo, Joao

    2017-11-01

    A number of space missions (including in the ESA Exploration Programme) foreseen a use of laser radar sensor (or lidar) for determination of range between spacecrafts or between spacecraft and ground surface (altimetry). Such sensors need to be compact, robust and power efficient, at the same time with high detection performance. These requirements can be achieved with a Pseudo-Random Noise continuous wave lidar (PRN cw lidar). Previous studies have pointed to the advantages of this lidar with respect to space missions, but they also identified its limitations in high optical background. The progress of the lasers and the detectors in the near IR spectral range requires a re-evaluation of the PRN cw lidar potential. Here we address the performances of this lidar for surface detection (altimetry) in planetary missions. The evaluation is based on the following system configuration: (i) A cw fiber amplifier as lidar transmitter. The seeding laser exhibits a single-frequency spectral line, with subsequent amplitude modulation. The fiber amplifier allows high output power level, keeping the spectral characteristics and the modulation of the seeding light input. (ii) An avalanche photodiode in photon counting detection; (iii) Measurement scenarios representative for Earth, Mercury and Mars.

  11. RADARS, a bioinformatics solution that automates proteome mass spectral analysis, optimises protein identification, and archives data in a relational database.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Field, Helen I; Fenyö, David; Beavis, Ronald C

    2002-01-01

    RADARS, a rapid, automated, data archiving and retrieval software system for high-throughput proteomic mass spectral data processing and storage, is described. The majority of mass spectrometer data files are compatible with RADARS, for consistent processing. The system automatically takes unprocessed data files, identifies proteins via in silico database searching, then stores the processed data and search results in a relational database suitable for customized reporting. The system is robust, used in 24/7 operation, accessible to multiple users of an intranet through a web browser, may be monitored by Virtual Private Network, and is secure. RADARS is scalable for use on one or many computers, and is suited to multiple processor systems. It can incorporate any local database in FASTA format, and can search protein and DNA databases online. A key feature is a suite of visualisation tools (many available gratis), allowing facile manipulation of spectra, by hand annotation, reanalysis, and access to all procedures. We also described the use of Sonar MS/MS, a novel, rapid search engine requiring 40 MB RAM per process for searches against a genomic or EST database translated in all six reading frames. RADARS reduces the cost of analysis by its efficient algorithms: Sonar MS/MS can identifiy proteins without accurate knowledge of the parent ion mass and without protein tags. Statistical scoring methods provide close-to-expert accuracy and brings robust data analysis to the non-expert user.

  12. Radar Fundamentals, Presentation

    OpenAIRE

    Jenn, David

    2008-01-01

    Topics include: introduction, radar functions, antennas basics, radar range equation, system parameters, electromagnetic waves, scattering mechanisms, radar cross section and stealth, and sample radar systems.

  13. Simulation model study of limitation on the locating distance of a ground penetrating radar; Chichu tansa radar no tansa kyori genkai ni kansuru simulation model no kochiku

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Nakauchi, T; Tsunasaki, M; Kishi, M; Hayakawa, H [Osaka Gas Co. Ltd., Osaka (Japan)

    1996-10-01

    Various simulations were carried out under various laying conditions to obtain the limitation of locating distance for ground penetrating radar. Recently, ground penetrating radar has been remarked as location technology of obstacles such as the existing buried objects. To enhance the theoretical model (radar equation) of a maximum locating distance, the following factors were examined experimentally using pulse ground penetrating radar: ground surface conditions such as asphalt pavement, diameter of buried pipes, material of buried pipes, effect of soil, antenna gain. The experiment results well agreed with actual field experiment ones. By adopting the antenna gain and effect of the ground surface, the more practical simulation using underground models became possible. The maximum locating distance was more improved by large antenna than small one in actual field. It is assumed that large antenna components contributed to improvement of gain and reduction of attenuation during passing through soil. 5 refs., 12 figs.

  14. High Frequency Radar Locations in the United States as of February 2016.

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This dataset show the point locations of High Frequency (HF) radar systems across the US. HF radars measure the speed and direction of ocean surface currents in near...

  15. Weather Radar Stations

    Data.gov (United States)

    Department of Homeland Security — These data represent Next-Generation Radar (NEXRAD) and Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR) weather radar stations within the US. The NEXRAD radar stations are...

  16. Arecibo Radar Observation of Near-Earth Asteroids: Expanded Sample Size, Determination of Radar Albedos, and Measurements of Polarization Ratios

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lejoly, Cassandra; Howell, Ellen S.; Taylor, Patrick A.; Springmann, Alessondra; Virkki, Anne; Nolan, Michael C.; Rivera-Valentin, Edgard G.; Benner, Lance A. M.; Brozovic, Marina; Giorgini, Jon D.

    2017-10-01

    The Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) population ranges in size from a few meters to more than 10 kilometers. NEAs have a wide variety of taxonomic classes, surface features, and shapes, including spheroids, binary objects, contact binaries, elongated, as well as irregular bodies. Using the Arecibo Observatory planetary radar system, we have measured apparent rotation rate, radar reflectivity, apparent diameter, and radar albedos for over 350 NEAs. The radar albedo is defined as the radar cross-section divided by the geometric cross-section. If a shape model is available, the actual cross-section is known at the time of the observation. Otherwise we derive a geometric cross-section from a measured diameter. When radar imaging is available, the diameter was measured from the apparent range depth. However, when radar imaging was not available, we used the continuous wave (CW) bandwidth radar measurements in conjunction with the period of the object. The CW bandwidth provides apparent rotation rate, which, given an independent rotation measurement, such as from lightcurves, constrains the size of the object. We assumed an equatorial view unless we knew the pole orientation, which gives a lower limit on the diameter. The CW also provides the polarization ratio, which is the ratio of the SC and OC cross-sections.We confirm the trend found by Benner et al. (2008) that taxonomic types E and V have very high polarization ratios. We have obtained a larger sample and can analyze additional trends with spin, size, rotation rate, taxonomic class, polarization ratio, and radar albedo to interpret the origin of the NEAs and their dynamical processes. The distribution of radar albedo and polarization ratio at the smallest diameters (≤50 m) differs from the distribution of larger objects (>50 m), although the sample size is limited. Additionally, we find more moderate radar albedos for the smallest NEAs when compared to those with diameters 50-150 m. We will present additional trends we

  17. Hourly surface currents measured by High Frequency (HF) Wellen radars (WERA) off western Oahu, Hawaii, from September 2002 to May 2003 (NODC Accession 0013113)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — A pair of High Frequency Wellen radars (WERA) shore-based at southwest Oahu (Ko'Olina) and northwest Oahu (Kaena), Hawaii measured surface currents over a nine-month...

  18. A novel through-wall respiration detection algorithm using UWB radar.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Xin; Qiao, Dengyu; Li, Ye; Dai, Huhe

    2013-01-01

    Through-wall respiration detection using Ultra-wideband (UWB) impulse radar can be applied to the post-disaster rescue, e.g., searching living persons trapped in ruined buildings after an earthquake. Since strong interference signals always exist in the real-life scenarios, such as static clutter, noise, etc., while the respiratory signal is very weak, the signal to noise and clutter ratio (SNCR) is quite low. Therefore, through-wall respiration detection using UWB impulse radar under low SNCR is a challenging work in the research field of searching survivors after disaster. In this paper, an improved UWB respiratory signal model is built up based on an even power of cosine function for the first time. This model is used to reveal the harmonic structure of respiratory signal, based on which a novel high-performance respiration detection algorithm is proposed. This novel algorithm is assessed by experimental verification and simulation and shows about a 1.5dB improvement of SNR and SNCR.

  19. Radar sensing via a Micro-UAV-borne system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Catapano, Ilaria; Ludeno, Giovanni; Gennarelli, Gianluca; Soldovieri, Francesco; Rodi Vetrella, Amedeo; Fasano, Giancarmine

    2017-04-01

    In recent years, the miniaturization of flight control systems and payloads has contributed to a fast and widespread diffusion of micro-UAV (Unmanned Aircraft Vehicle). While micro-UAV can be a powerful tool in several civil applications such as environmental monitoring and surveillance, unleashing their full potential for societal benefits requires augmenting their sensing capability beyond the realm of active/passive optical sensors [1]. In this frame, radar systems are drawing attention since they allow performing missions in all-weather and day/night conditions and, thanks to the microwave ability to penetrate opaque media, they enable the detection and localization not only of surface objects but also of sub-surface/hidden targets. However, micro-UAV-borne radar imaging represents still a new frontier, since it is much more than a matter of technology miniaturization or payload installation, which can take advantage of the newly developed ultralight systems. Indeed, micro-UAV-borne radar imaging entails scientific challenges in terms of electromagnetic modeling and knowledge of flight dynamics and control. As a consequence, despite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging is a traditional remote sensing tool, its adaptation to micro-UAV is an open issue and so far only few case studies concerning the integration of SAR and UAV technologies have been reported worldwide [2]. In addition, only early results concerning subsurface imaging by means of an UAV-mounted radar are available [3]. As a contribution to radar imaging via autonomous micro-UAV, this communication presents a proof-of-concept experiment. This experiment represents the first step towards the development of a general methodological approach that exploits expertise about (sub-)surface imaging and aerospace systems with the aim to provide high-resolution images of the surveyed scene. In details, at the conference, we will present the results of a flight campaign carried out by using a single radar

  20. Reconciling Electrical Properties of Titan's Surface Derived from Cassini RADAR Scatterometer and Radiometer Measurements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zebker, H. A.; Wye, L. C.; Janssen, M.; Paganelli, F.; Cassini RADAR Team

    2006-12-01

    We observe Titan, Saturn's largest moon, using active and passive microwave instruments carried on board the Cassini spacecraft. The 2.2-cm wavelength penetrates the thick atmosphere and provides surface measurements at resolutions from 10-200 km over much of the satellite's surface. The emissivity and reflectivity of surface features are generally anticorrelated, and both values are fairly high. Inversion of either set of data alone yields dielectric constants ranging from 1.5 to 3 or 4, consistent with an icy hydrocarbon or water ice composition. However, the dielectric constants retrieved from radiometric data alone are usually less than those inferred from backscatter measurements, a discrepancy consistent with similar analyses dating back to lunar observations in the 1960's. Here we seek to reconcile Titan's reflectivity and emissivity observations using a single physical model of the surface. Our approach is to calculate the energy scattered by Titan's surface and near subsurface, with the remainder absorbed. In equilibrium the absorption equals the emission, so that both the reflectivity and emissivity are described by the model. We use a form of the Kirchhoff model for modeling surface scatter, and a model based on weak localization of light for the volume scatter. With this model we present dielectric constant and surface roughness parameters that match both sets of Cassini RADAR observations over limited regions on Titan's surface, helping to constrain the composition and roughness of the surface. Most regions display electrical properties consistent with solid surfaces, however some of the darker "lake-like" features at higher latitudes can be modeled as either solid or liquid materials. The ambiguity arises from the limited set of observational angles available.

  1. Power centroid radar and its rise from the universal cybernetics duality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feria, Erlan H.

    2014-05-01

    Power centroid radar (PC-Radar) is a fast and powerful adaptive radar scheme that naturally surfaced from the recent discovery of the time-dual for information theory which has been named "latency theory." Latency theory itself was born from the universal cybernetics duality (UC-Duality), first identified in the late 1970s, that has also delivered a time dual for thermodynamics that has been named "lingerdynamics" and anchors an emerging lifespan theory for biological systems. In this paper the rise of PC-Radar from the UC-Duality is described. The development of PC-Radar, US patented, started with Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funded research on knowledge-aided (KA) adaptive radar of the last decade. The outstanding signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) performance of PC-Radar under severely taxing environmental disturbances will be established. More specifically, it will be seen that the SINR performance of PC-Radar, either KA or knowledgeunaided (KU), approximates that of an optimum KA radar scheme. The explanation for this remarkable result is that PC-Radar inherently arises from the UC-Duality, which advances a "first principles" duality guidance theory for the derivation of synergistic storage-space/computational-time compression solutions. Real-world synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images will be used as prior-knowledge to illustrate these results.

  2. An Algorithm for Surface Current Retrieval from X-band Marine Radar Images

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chengxi Shen

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, a novel current inversion algorithm from X-band marine radar images is proposed. The routine, for which deep water is assumed, begins with 3-D FFT of the radar image sequence, followed by the extraction of the dispersion shell from the 3-D image spectrum. Next, the dispersion shell is converted to a polar current shell (PCS using a polar coordinate transformation. After removing outliers along each radial direction of the PCS, a robust sinusoidal curve fitting is applied to the data points along each circumferential direction of the PCS. The angle corresponding to the maximum of the estimated sinusoid function is determined to be the current direction, and the amplitude of this sinusoidal function is the current speed. For validation, the algorithm is tested against both simulated radar images and field data collected by a vertically-polarized X-band system and ground-truthed with measurements from an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP. From the field data, it is observed that when the current speed is less than 0.5 m/s, the root mean square differences between the radar-derived and the ADCP-measured current speed and direction are 7.3 cm/s and 32.7°, respectively. The results indicate that the proposed procedure, unlike most existing current inversion schemes, is not susceptible to high current speeds and circumvents the need to consider aliasing. Meanwhile, the relatively low computational cost makes it an excellent choice in practical marine applications.

  3. Synergistic Use of Spacecraft Telecom Links for Collection of Planetary Radar Science Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Asmar, S.; Bell, D. J.; Chahat, N. E.; Decrossas, E.; Dobreva, T.; Duncan, C.; Ellliot, H.; Jin, C.; Lazio, J.; Miller, J.; Preston, R.

    2017-12-01

    On multiple solar system missions, radar instruments have been used to probe subsurface geomorphology and to infer chemical composition based on the dielectric signature derived from the reflected signal. Example spacecraft radar instruments are the 90 MHz CONSERT radar used to probe the interior of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko to a depth of 760m, the 20 MHz SHARAD instrument used to investigate Mars subsurface ice features from Mars orbit at depths of 300 to 3000 meters and the upcoming RIMFAX 150 MHz to 1200 MHz ground penetrating radar that will ride on the Mars 2020 rover investigating to a depth of 10m below the rover. In all of these applications, the radar frequency and signal structures were chosen to match science goals of desired depth of penetration and spatial resolution combined with the expected subsurface materials and structures below the surface. Recently, JPL investigators have proposed a new radar science paradigm, synergistic use of the telecom hardware and telecom links to collect bistatic or monostatic radar signatures. All JPL spacecraft employ telecom hardware that operates at UHF (400 MHz and 900 MHz), X-band (8 GHz) or Ka-band (32 GHz). Using existing open-loop record functions in these radios, the telecom hardware can be used to capture opportunistic radar signatures from telecom signals penetrating the surface and reflecting off of subsurface structures. This paper reports on telecom strategies, radar science applications and recent laboratory and field tests to demonstrate the effectiveness of telecom link based radar data collection.

  4. SURFACE GEOPHYSICAL EXPLORATION OF TX-TY TANK FARMS AT THE HANFORD SITE: RESULTS OF BACKGROUND CHARACTERIZATION WITH GROUND PENETRATING RADAR

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    MYERS DA; CUBBAGE R; BRAUCHLA R; O'BRIEN G

    2008-01-01

    Ground penetrating radar surveys of the TX and TY tank farms were performed to identify existing infrastructure in the near surface environment. These surveys were designed to provide background information supporting Surface-to-Surface and Well-to-Well resistivity surveys of Waste Management Area TX-TY. The objective of the preliminary investigation was to collect background characterization information with GPR to understand the spatial distribution of metallic objects that could potentially interfere with the results from high resolution resistivity(trademark) surveys. The results of the background characterization confirm the existence of documented infrastructure, as well as highlight locations of possible additional undocumented subsurface metallic objects

  5. Challenges for Greenland-wide mass balance from Cryosat-2 radar-altimetry

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Simonsen, Sebastian Bjerregaard; Forsberg, René; Sørensen, Louise Sandberg

    As the Greenland ice sheet warms, a change in the structure of the upper snow/firn occurs. This change further induces changes in the reflective properties of the firn seen from satellite radar altimetry. If not identified as changes in the reflective properties of the firn, these may be interpre......As the Greenland ice sheet warms, a change in the structure of the upper snow/firn occurs. This change further induces changes in the reflective properties of the firn seen from satellite radar altimetry. If not identified as changes in the reflective properties of the firn, these may...... be interpreted as actual surface elevation changes seen from the satellite radar altimetry (Nilsson et al., 2015).Here, we investigate how to correct the elevation change observed from the ESA Cryosat-2 radar altimetry mission to derive elevation change of the air/snow interface of the Greenland ice sheet....... The elevation change of this “real” physical surface is crucial, if the goal is to derive Greenland mass balance as done for LiDAR missions.The investigations look into waveform parameters to correct for the observed bias between Radar and LiDAR observations when using Croysat-2 level-2 data. Based...

  6. Tsunami Arrival Detection with High Frequency (HF Radar

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Donald Barrick

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available Quantitative real-time observations of a tsunami have been limited to deep-water, pressure-sensor observations of changes in the sea surface elevation and observations of sea level fluctuations at the coast, which are essentially point measurements. Constrained by these data, models have been used for predictions and warning of the arrival of a tsunami, but to date no system exists for local detection of an actual incoming wave with a significant warning capability. Networks of coastal high frequency (HF-radars are now routinely observing surface currents in many countries. We report here on an empirical method for the detection of the initial arrival of a tsunami, and demonstrate its use with results from data measured by fourteen HF radar sites in Japan and USA following the magnitude 9.0 earthquake off Sendai, Japan, on 11 March 2011. The distance offshore at which the tsunami can be detected, and hence the warning time provided, depends on the bathymetry: the wider the shallow continental shelf, the greater this time. We compare arrival times at the radars with those measured by neighboring tide gauges. Arrival times measured by the radars preceded those at neighboring tide gauges by an average of 19 min (Japan and 15 min (USA The initial water-height increase due to the tsunami as measured by the tide gauges was moderate, ranging from 0.3 to 2 m. Thus it appears possible to detect even moderate tsunamis using this method. Larger tsunamis could obviously be detected further from the coast. We find that tsunami arrival within the radar coverage area can be announced 8 min (i.e., twice the radar spectral time resolution after its first appearance. This can provide advance warning of the tsunami approach to the coastline locations.

  7. A simple model for retrieving bare soil moisture from radar-scattering coefficients

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chen, K.S.; Yen, S.K.; Huang, W.P.

    1995-01-01

    A simple algorithm based on a rough surface scattering model was developed to invert the bare soil moisture content from active microwave remote sensing data. In the algorithm development, a frequency mixing model was used to relate soil moisture to the dielectric constant. In particular, the Integral Equation Model (IEM) was used over a wide range of surface roughness and radar frequencies. To derive the algorithm, a sensitivity analysis was performed using a Monte Carlo simulation to study the effects of surface parameters, including height variance, correlation length, and dielectric constant. Because radar return is inherently dependent on both moisture content and surface roughness, the purpose of the sensitivity testing was to select the proper radar parameters so as to optimally decouple these two factors, in an attempt to minimize the effects of one while the other was observed. As a result, the optimal radar parameter ranges can be chosen for the purpose of soil moisture content inversion. One thousand samples were then generated with the IEM model followed by multivariate linear regression analysis to obtain an empirical soil moisture model. Numerical comparisons were made to illustrate the inversion performance using experimental measurements. Results indicate that the present algorithm is simple and accurate, and can be a useful tool for the remote sensing of bare soil surfaces. (author)

  8. Radar observations of Comet Halley

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Campbell, D.B.; Harmon, J.K.; Shapiro, I.I.

    1989-01-01

    Five nights of Arecibo radar observations of Comet Halley are reported which reveal a feature in the overall average spectrum which, though weak, seems consistent with being an echo from the comet. The large radar cross section and large bandwidth of the feature suggest that the echo is predominantly from large grains which have been ejected from the nucleus. Extrapolation of the dust particle size distribution to large grain sizes gives a sufficient number of grains to account for the echo. The lack of a detectable echo from the nucleus, combined with estimates of its size and rotation rate from spacecraft encounters and other data, indicate that the nucleus has a surface of relatively high porosity. 33 references

  9. Improving Weather Radar Precipitation Estimates by Combining two Types of Radars

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Jesper Ellerbæk; Thorndahl, Søren Liedtke; Rasmussen, Michael R.

    2014-01-01

    This paper presents a demonstration of how Local Area Weather Radar (LAWR) X-band measurements can be combined with meteorological C–band measurements into a single radar product. For this purpose, a blending method has been developed which combines the strengths of the two radar systems. Combining...... the two radar types achieves a radar product with both long range and high temporal resolution. It is validated that the blended radar product performs better than the individual radars based on ground observations from laser disdrometers. However, the data combination is challenged by lower performance...... of the LAWR. Although both radars benefits from the data combination, it is also found that advection based temporal interpolation is a more favourable method for increasing the temporal resolution of meteorological C–band measurements....

  10. Detecting weather radar clutter using satellite-based nowcasting products

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Thomas B.S.; Gill, Rashpal S.; Overgaard, Søren

    2006-01-01

    This contribution presents the initial results from experiments with detection of weather radar clutter by information fusion with satellite based nowcasting products. Previous studies using information fusion of weather radar data and first generation Meteosat imagery have shown promising results...... for the detecting and removal of clutter. Naturally, the improved spatio-temporal resolution of the Meteosat Second Generation sensors, coupled with its increased number of spectral bands, is expected to yield even better detection accuracies. Weather radar data from three C-band Doppler weather radars...... Application Facility' of EUMETSAT and is based on multispectral images from the SEVIRI sensor of the Meteosat-8 platform. Of special interest is the 'Precipitating Clouds' product, which uses the spectral information coupled with surface temperatures from Numerical Weather Predictions to assign probabilities...

  11. Radar Scan Methods in Modern Multifunctional Radars

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. N. Skosyrev

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Considered urgent task of organizing the review space in modern multifunctional radar systems shall review the space in a wide range of elevation angles from minus 5 to 60-80 degrees and 360 degrees azimuth. MfRLS this type should provide an overview of the zone for a limited time (2-3 sec, detecting a wide range of subtle high and low-flying targets. The latter circumstance requires the organization to select targets against the background of reflections from the underlying surface and local objects (MP. When providing an overview of the space taken into account the need to increase not only the noise immunity, and survivability.Two variants of the review of space in the elevation plane in the solid-state AESA radar. In the first case the overview space narrow beam by one beam. In the second - the transfer of DNA is formed, covering the whole sector of responsibility in elevation and at the reception beam is formed in spetsvychislitele (CB as a result of the signal processing of digitized after emitters antenna web. The estimations of the parameters specific to the multifunction radar SAM air and missile defense. It is shown that in a number of practically important cases, preference should be given clearly one of the methods described review of space.The functional scheme with AESA radar for both variants of the review. Necessary to analyze their differences. Contains the problem of increasing the cost of MfRLS with digital beamforming DNA with increasing bandwidth probing signal being processed.Noted drawbacks of MfRLS with digital beamforming beam. Including: reduced accuracy of the coordinates at low elevation angles, the complexity of the organization of thermal regime of the solid element base using quasi-continuous signal with a low duty cycle. Shows their fundamentally unavoidable in the steppe and desert areas with uneven terrain (Kazakhstan, China, the Middle East.It is shown that for MfRLS working in strong clutter, more preferably

  12. Application of HF Radar in Hazard Management

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mal Heron

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available A review is given of the impact that HF radars are having on the management of coastal hazards. Maps of surface currents can be produced every 10–20 minutes which, in real time, improve navigation safety in restricted areas commonly found near ports and harbours. The time sequence of surface current maps enables Lagrangian tracking of small parcels of surface water, which enables hazard mitigation in managing suspended sediments in dredging, in emergency situations where flotsam and other drifting items need to be found, and in pollution control. The surface current measurement capability is used to assist tsunami warnings as shown by the phased-array data from Chile following the Great Tohoku Earthquake in 2011. The newly launched Tsunami Warning Center in Oman includes a network of phased-array HF radars to provide real-time tsunami monitoring. Wind direction maps can be used to locate the position of cold fronts in the open ocean and to monitor the timing and strength of sea-breeze fronts in key locations.

  13. Phased Array Radar Network Experiment for Severe Weather

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ushio, T.; Kikuchi, H.; Mega, T.; Yoshikawa, E.; Mizutani, F.; Takahashi, N.

    2017-12-01

    Phased Array Weather Radar (PAWR) was firstly developed in 2012 by Osaka University and Toshiba under a grant of NICT using the Digital Beamforming Technique, and showed a impressive thunderstorm behavior with 30 second resolution. After that development, second PAWR was installed in Kobe city about 60 km away from the first PAWR site, and Tokyo Metropolitan University, Osaka Univeristy, Toshiba and the Osaka Local Government started a new project to develop the Osaka Urban Demonstration Network. The main sensor of the Osaka Network is a 2-node Phased Array Radar Network and lightning location system. Data products that are created both in local high performance computer and Toshiba Computer Cloud, include single and multi-radar data, vector wind, quantitative precipitation estimation, VIL, nowcasting, lightning location and analysis. Each radar node is calibarated by the baloon measurement and through the comparison with the GPM (Global Precipitation Measurement)/ DPR (Dual Frequency Space borne Radar) within 1 dB. The attenuated radar reflectivities obtained by the Phased Array Radar Network at X band are corrected based on the bayesian scheme proposed in Shimamura et al. [2016]. The obtained high resolution (every 30 seconds/ 100 elevation angles) 3D reflectivity and rain rate fields are used to nowcast the surface rain rate up to 30 minutes ahead. These new products are transferred to Osaka Local Government in operational mode and evaluated by several section in Osaka Prefecture. Furthermore, a new Phased Array Radar with polarimetric function has been developed in 2017, and will be operated in the fiscal year of 2017. In this presentation, Phased Array Radar, network architecuture, processing algorithm, evalution of the social experiment and first Multi-Prameter Phased Array Radar experiment are presented.

  14. Field intercomparison of channel master ADCP with RiverSonde Radar for measuring river discharge

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spain, P.; Marsden, R.; Barrick, D.; Teague, C.; Ruhl, C.

    2005-01-01

    The RiverSonde radar makes non-contact measurement of a horizontal swath of surface velocity across a river section. This radar, which has worked successfully at several rivers in the Western USA, has shown encouraging correlation with simultaneous measurements of average currents at one level recorded by an acoustic travel-time system. This work reports a field study intercomparing data sets from a 600 kHz Channel Master ADCP with the RiverSonde radar. The primary goal was to begin to explore the robustness of the radar data as a reliable index of discharge. This site Is at Three Mile Slough in Northern California, USA. The larger intent of the work is to examine variability in space and time of the radar's surface currents compared with subsurface flows across the river section. Here we examine data from a couple of periods with strong winds. ?? 2005 IEEE.

  15. UAV-based Radar Sounding of Antarctic Ice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leuschen, Carl; Yan, Jie-Bang; Mahmood, Ali; Rodriguez-Morales, Fernando; Hale, Rick; Camps-Raga, Bruno; Metz, Lynsey; Wang, Zongbo; Paden, John; Bowman, Alec; Keshmiri, Shahriar; Gogineni, Sivaprasad

    2014-05-01

    We developed a compact radar for use on a small UAV to conduct measurements over the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. It operates at center frequencies of 14 and 35 MHz with bandwidths of 1 MHz and 4 MHz, respectively. The radar weighs about 2 kgs and is housed in a box with dimensions of 20.3 cm x 15.2 cm x 13.2 cm. It transmits a signal power of 100 W at a pulse repletion frequency of 10 kHz and requires average power of about 20 W. The antennas for operating the radar are integrated into the wings and airframe of a small UAV with a wingspan of 5.3 m. We selected the frequencies of 14 and 35 MHz based on previous successful soundings of temperate ice in Alaska with a 12.5 MHz impulse radar [Arcone, 2002] and temperate glaciers in Patagonia with a 30 MHz monocycle radar [Blindow et al., 2012]. We developed the radar-equipped UAV to perform surveys over a 2-D grid, which allows us to synthesize a large two-dimensional aperture and obtain fine resolution in both the along- and cross-track directions. Low-frequency, high-sensitivity radars with 2-D aperture synthesis capability are needed to overcome the surface and volume scatter that masks weak echoes from the ice-bed interface of fast-flowing glaciers. We collected data with the radar-equipped UAV on sub-glacial ice near Lake Whillans at both 14 and 35 MHz. We acquired data to evaluate the concept of 2-D aperture synthesis and successfully demonstrated the first successful sounding of ice with a radar on an UAV. We are planning to build multiple radar-equipped UAVs for collecting fine-resolution data near the grounding lines of fast-flowing glaciers. In this presentation we will provide a brief overview of the radar and UAV, as well as present results obtained at both 14 and 35 MHz. Arcone, S. 2002. Airborne-radar stratigraphy and electrical structure of temperate firn: Bagley Ice Field, Alaska, U.S.A. Journal of Glaciology, 48, 317-334. Blindow, N., C. Salat, and G. Casassa. 2012. Airborne GPR sounding of

  16. Searching for the IRA "disappeared": ground-penetrating radar investigation of a churchyard burial site, Northern Ireland.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruffell, Alastair

    2005-11-01

    A search for the body of a victim of terrorist abduction and murder was made in a graveyard on the periphery of a major conurbation in Northern Ireland. The area is politically sensitive and the case of high profile. This required non-invasive, completely non-destructive and rapid assessment of the scene. A MALA RAMAC ground-penetrating radar system was used to achieve these objectives. Unprocessed and processed 400 MHz data show the presence of a collapse feature above and around a known 1970s burial with no similar collapse above the suspect location. In the saturated, clay-rich sediments of the site, 200 MHz data offered no advantage over 400 MHz data. Unprocessed 100 MHz data shows a series of multiples in the known burial with no similar features in the suspect location. Processed 100 MHz lines defined the shape of the collapse around the known burial to 2 m depth, together with the geometry of the platform (1 m depth) the gravedigger used in the 1970s to construct the site. In addition, processed 100 MHz data showed both the dielectric contrast in and internal reflection geometry of the soil imported above the known grave. Thus the sequence, geometry, difference in infill and infill direction of the grave was reconstructed 30 years after burial. The suspect site showed no evidence of shallow or deep inhumation. Subsequently, the missing person's body was found some distance from this site, vindicating the results and interpretation from ground-penetrating radar. The acquisition, processing, collapse feature and sequence stratigraphic interpretation of the known burial and empty (suspect) burial site may be useful proxies for other, similar investigations. GPR was used to evaluate this site within 3 h of the survey commencing, using unprocessed data. An additional day of processing established that the suspect body did not reside here, which was counter to police and community intelligence.

  17. Continuous Estimates of Surface Density and Annual Snow Accumulation with Multi-Channel Snow/Firn Penetrating Radar in the Percolation Zone, Western Greenland Ice Sheet

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meehan, T.; Marshall, H. P.; Bradford, J.; Hawley, R. L.; Osterberg, E. C.; McCarthy, F.; Lewis, G.; Graeter, K.

    2017-12-01

    A priority of ice sheet surface mass balance (SMB) prediction is ascertaining the surface density and annual snow accumulation. These forcing data can be supplied into firn compaction models and used to tune Regional Climate Models (RCM). RCMs do not accurately capture subtle changes in the snow accumulation gradient. Additionally, leading RCMs disagree among each other and with accumulation studies in regions of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) over large distances and temporal scales. RCMs tend to yield inconsistencies over GrIS because of sparse and outdated validation data in the reanalysis pool. Greenland Traverse for Accumulation and Climate Studies (GreenTrACS) implemented multi-channel 500 MHz Radar in multi-offset configuration throughout two traverse campaigns totaling greater than 3500 km along the western percolation zone of GrIS. The multi-channel radar has the capability of continuously estimating snow depth, average density, and annual snow accumulation, expressed at 95% confidence (+-) 0.15 m, (+-) 17 kgm-3, (+-) 0.04 m w.e. respectively, by examination of the primary reflection return from the previous year's summer surface.

  18. Investigation of Weather Radar Quantitative Precipitation Estimation Methodologies in Complex Orography

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mario Montopoli

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Near surface quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE from weather radar measurements is an important task for feeding hydrological models, limiting the impact of severe rain events at the ground as well as aiding validation studies of satellite-based rain products. To date, several works have analyzed the performance of various QPE algorithms using actual and synthetic experiments, possibly trained by measurement of particle size distributions and electromagnetic models. Most of these studies support the use of dual polarization radar variables not only to ensure a good level of data quality but also as a direct input to rain estimation equations. One of the most important limiting factors in radar QPE accuracy is the vertical variability of particle size distribution, which affects all the acquired radar variables as well as estimated rain rates at different levels. This is particularly impactful in mountainous areas, where the sampled altitudes are likely several hundred meters above the surface. In this work, we analyze the impact of the vertical profile variations of rain precipitation on several dual polarization radar QPE algorithms when they are tested in a complex orography scenario. So far, in weather radar studies, more emphasis has been given to the extrapolation strategies that use the signature of the vertical profiles in terms of radar co-polar reflectivity. This may limit the use of the radar vertical profiles when dual polarization QPE algorithms are considered. In that case, all the radar variables used in the rain estimation process should be consistently extrapolated at the surface to try and maintain the correlations among them. To avoid facing such a complexity, especially with a view to operational implementation, we propose looking at the features of the vertical profile of rain (VPR, i.e., after performing the rain estimation. This procedure allows characterization of a single variable (i.e., rain when dealing with

  19. Spin-image surface matching based target recognition in laser radar range imagery

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li, Wang; Jian-Feng, Sun; Qi, Wang

    2010-01-01

    We explore the problem of in-plane rotation-invariance existing in the vertical detection of laser radar (Ladar) using the algorithm of spin-image surface matching. The method used to recognize the target in the range imagery of Ladar is time-consuming, owing to its complicated procedure, which violates the requirement of real-time target recognition in practical applications. To simplify the troublesome procedures, we improve the spin-image algorithm by introducing a statistical correlated coefficient into target recognition in range imagery of Ladar. The system performance is demonstrated on sixteen simulated noise range images with targets rotated through an arbitrary angle in plane. A high efficiency and an acceptable recognition rate obtained herein testify the validity of the improved algorithm for practical applications. The proposed algorithm not only solves the problem of in-plane rotation-invariance rationally, but also meets the real-time requirement. This paper ends with a comparison of the proposed method and the previous one. (classical areas of phenomenology)

  20. Maritime over the Horizon Sensor Integration: High Frequency Surface-Wave-Radar and Automatic Identification System Data Integration Algorithm.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nikolic, Dejan; Stojkovic, Nikola; Lekic, Nikola

    2018-04-09

    To obtain the complete operational picture of the maritime situation in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) which lies over the horizon (OTH) requires the integration of data obtained from various sensors. These sensors include: high frequency surface-wave-radar (HFSWR), satellite automatic identification system (SAIS) and land automatic identification system (LAIS). The algorithm proposed in this paper utilizes radar tracks obtained from the network of HFSWRs, which are already processed by a multi-target tracking algorithm and associates SAIS and LAIS data to the corresponding radar tracks, thus forming an integrated data pair. During the integration process, all HFSWR targets in the vicinity of AIS data are evaluated and the one which has the highest matching factor is used for data association. On the other hand, if there is multiple AIS data in the vicinity of a single HFSWR track, the algorithm still makes only one data pair which consists of AIS and HFSWR data with the highest mutual matching factor. During the design and testing, special attention is given to the latency of AIS data, which could be very high in the EEZs of developing countries. The algorithm is designed, implemented and tested in a real working environment. The testing environment is located in the Gulf of Guinea and includes a network of HFSWRs consisting of two HFSWRs, several coastal sites with LAIS receivers and SAIS data provided by provider of SAIS data.

  1. Soil surface moisture estimation over a semi-arid region using ENVISAT ASAR radar data for soil evaporation evaluation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Zribi

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available The present paper proposes a method for the evaluation of soil evaporation, using soil moisture estimations based on radar satellite measurements. We present firstly an approach for the estimation and monitoring of soil moisture in a semi-arid region in North Africa, using ENVISAT ASAR images, over two types of vegetation covers. The first mapping process is dedicated solely to the monitoring of moisture variability related to rainfall events, over areas in the "non-irrigated olive tree" class of land use. The developed approach is based on a simple linear relationship between soil moisture and the backscattered radar signal normalised at a reference incidence angle. The second process is proposed over wheat fields, using an analysis of moisture variability due to both rainfall and irrigation. A semi-empirical model, based on the water-cloud model for vegetation correction, is used to retrieve soil moisture from the radar signal. Moisture mapping is carried out over wheat fields, showing high variability between irrigated and non-irrigated wheat covers. This analysis is based on a large database, including both ENVISAT ASAR and simultaneously acquired ground-truth measurements (moisture, vegetation, roughness, during the 2008–2009 vegetation cycle. Finally, a semi-empirical approach is proposed in order to relate surface moisture to the difference between soil evaporation and the climate demand, as defined by the potential evaporation. Mapping of the soil evaporation is proposed.

  2. An Ultra-Wideband, Microwave Radar for Measuring Snow Thickness on Sea Ice and Mapping Near-Surface Internal Layers in Polar Firn

    Science.gov (United States)

    Panzer, Ben; Gomez-Garcia, Daniel; Leuschen, Carl; Paden, John; Rodriguez-Morales, Fernando; Patel, Azsa; Markus, Thorsten; Holt, Benjamin; Gogineni, Prasad

    2013-01-01

    Sea ice is generally covered with snow, which can vary in thickness from a few centimeters to >1 m. Snow cover acts as a thermal insulator modulating the heat exchange between the ocean and the atmosphere, and it impacts sea-ice growth rates and overall thickness, a key indicator of climate change in polar regions. Snow depth is required to estimate sea-ice thickness using freeboard measurements made with satellite altimeters. The snow cover also acts as a mechanical load that depresses ice freeboard (snow and ice above sea level). Freeboard depression can result in flooding of the snow/ice interface and the formation of a thick slush layer, particularly in the Antarctic sea-ice cover. The Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) has developed an ultra-wideband, microwave radar capable of operation on long-endurance aircraft to characterize the thickness of snow over sea ice. The low-power, 100mW signal is swept from 2 to 8GHz allowing the air/snow and snow/ ice interfaces to be mapped with 5 c range resolution in snow; this is an improvement over the original system that worked from 2 to 6.5 GHz. From 2009 to 2012, CReSIS successfully operated the radar on the NASA P-3B and DC-8 aircraft to collect data on snow-covered sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic for NASA Operation IceBridge. The radar was found capable of snow depth retrievals ranging from 10cm to >1 m. We also demonstrated that this radar can be used to map near-surface internal layers in polar firn with fine range resolution. Here we describe the instrument design, characteristics and performance of the radar.

  3. Simulation of a weather radar display for over-water airborne radar approaches

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clary, G. R.

    1983-01-01

    Airborne radar approach (ARA) concepts are being investigated as a part of NASA's Rotorcraft All-Weather Operations Research Program on advanced guidance and navigation methods. This research is being conducted using both piloted simulations and flight test evaluations. For the piloted simulations, a mathematical model of the airborne radar was developed for over-water ARAs to offshore platforms. This simulated flight scenario requires radar simulation of point targets, such as oil rigs and ships, distributed sea clutter, and transponder beacon replies. Radar theory, weather radar characteristics, and empirical data derived from in-flight radar photographs are combined to model a civil weather/mapping radar typical of those used in offshore rotorcraft operations. The resulting radar simulation is realistic and provides the needed simulation capability for ongoing ARA research.

  4. Mapping the Upper Subsurface of MARS Using Radar Polarimetry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carter, L. M.; Rincon, R.; Berkoski, L.

    2012-01-01

    Future human exploration of Mars will require detailed knowledge of the surface and upper several meters of the subsurface in potential landing sites. Likewise, many of the Planetary Science Decadal Survey science goals, such as understanding the history of Mars climate change, determining how the surface was altered through processes like volcanism and fluvial activity, and locating regions that may have been hospitable to life in the past, would be significantly advanced through mapping of the upper meters of the surface. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is the only remote sensing technique capable of penetrating through meters of material and imaging buried surfaces at high (meters to tens-of-meters) spatial resolution. SAR is capable of mapping the boundaries of buried units and radar polarimetry can provide quantitative information about the roughness of surface and subsurface units, depth of burial of stratigraphic units, and density of materials. Orbital SAR systems can obtain broad coverage at a spatial scale relevant to human and robotic surface operations. A polarimetric SAR system would greatly increase the safety and utility of future landed systems including sample caching.

  5. Venus: radar determination of gravity potential.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shapiro, I I; Pettengill, G H; Sherman, G N; Rogers, A E; Ingalls, R P

    1973-02-02

    We describe a method for the determination of the gravity potential of Venus from multiple-frequency radar measurements. The method is based on the strong frequency dependence of the absorption of radio waves in Venus' atmosphere. Comparison of the differing radar reflection intensities at several frequencies yields the height of the surface relative to a reference pressure contour; combination with measurements of round-trip echo delays allows the pressure, and hence the gravity potential contour, to be mapped relative to the mean planet radius. Since calibration data from other frequencies are unavailable, the absorption-sensitive Haystack Observatory data have been analyzed under the assumption of uniform surface reflectivity to yield a gravity equipotential contour for the equatorial region and a tentative upper bound of 6 x 10(-4) on the fractional difference of Venus' principal equatorial moments of inertia. The minima in the equipotential contours appear to be associated with topographic minima.

  6. Surface and interior of Venus

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Masursky, H [U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA; Kaula, W M [California Univ., Los Angeles (USA); McGill, G E [Massachusetts Univ., Amherst (USA); Pettengill, G H; Shapiro, I I [Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge (USA). Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences; Phillips, R J [Jet Propulsion Lab., Pasadena, Calif. (USA); Russell, C T [California Univ., Los Angeles (USA). Inst. of Geophysics and Planetary Physics; Schubert, G [California Univ., Los Angeles (USA)

    1977-06-01

    Present ideas about the surface and interior of Venus are based on data obtained from (1) Earth-based radio and radar: temperature, rotation, shape, and topography; (2) fly-by and orbiting spacecraft: gravity and magnetic fields; and (3) landers: winds, local structure, gamma radiation. Surface features, including large basins, crater-like depressions, and a linear valley, have been recognized from recent ground-based radar images. Pictures of the surface acquired by the USSR's Venera 9 and 10 show abundant boulders and apparent wind erosion. On the Pioneer Venus 1978 Orbiter mission, the radar mapper experiment will determine surface heights, dielectric constant values and small-scale slope values along the sub-orbital track between 50/sup 0/S and 75/sup 0/N. This experiment will also estimate the global shape and provide coarse radar images (40-80 km identification resolution) of part of the surface. Gravity data will be obtained by radio tracking. Maps combining radar altimetry with spacecraft and ground-based images will be made. A fluxgate magnetometer will measure the magnetic fields around Venus. The radar and gravity data will provide clues to the level of crustal differentiation and tectonic activity. The magnetometer will determine the field variations accurately. Data from the combined experiments may constrain the dynamo mechanism; if so, a deeper understanding of both Venus and Earth will be gained.

  7. Understanding radar systems

    CERN Document Server

    Kingsley, Simon

    1999-01-01

    What is radar? What systems are currently in use? How do they work? This book provides engineers and scientists with answers to these critical questions, focusing on actual radar systems in use today. It is a perfect resource for those just entering the field, or as a quick refresher for experienced practitioners. The book leads readers through the specialized language and calculations that comprise the complex world of radar engineering as seen in dozens of state-of-the-art radar systems. An easy to read, wide ranging guide to the world of modern radar systems.

  8. Pulse Doppler radar

    CERN Document Server

    Alabaster, Clive

    2012-01-01

    This book is a practitioner's guide to all aspects of pulse Doppler radar. It concentrates on airborne military radar systems since they are the most used, most complex, and most interesting of the pulse Doppler radars; however, ground-based and non-military systems are also included. It covers the fundamental science, signal processing, hardware issues, systems design and case studies of typical systems. It will be a useful resource for engineers of all types (hardware, software and systems), academics, post-graduate students, scientists in radar and radar electronic warfare sectors and milit

  9. Jupiter Trojan's Shallow Subsurface: Direct Observation By Radar Sounding

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herique, A.; Plettemeier, D.; Beck, P.; Michel, P.; Kumamoto, A.; Kofman, W. W.

    2017-12-01

    Most of the Jupiter's Trojan are classified as spectral type P or D from visible and near-IR observations. Still, major question remain regarding theire origin and geological evolution: What ices are present in their interior, and in what amount? What is the abundance and the nature of the organic fraction? Did they experience some level of differentiation powered by 26Al? Answering theses question is the goal of the Solar-Power Sail JAXA mission [1, 2]. This mission plans to study the surface by remote sensing in the optical in IR domain. This probe will carry a large-sized lander with a drill to sample the constitutive material at meter depth in order to complement physical and chemical properties measured by on-board instruments. The sample return is an option under study.Radar sounding of the shallow subsurface would be envisaged in complement to this payload. Sounding radar could provide the structure of the first tens of meters of the Trojan surface. It will allow identifying layering, ice lens, and embedded block. It also will enable to reconnect the surface with the deep interior in order to identify exogenous / pristine material. For the surface package, the drilling and the sample return, radar sounding is a unique opportunity to support the selection of the landing site and to provide the greater geological context of the samples that will be returned to Earth.In this paper, we will detail the objective of this instrument and then we will outline the proposed instrument, which is inheriting from the radar developed for the AIDA/AIM mission.[1] Mori, O. et al., Science experiments on a Jupiter Trojan Asteroid in the solar powerd sail mission. LPSC 2016 - 1822.[2] Okada, T. et al., Science and Exploration of a Jupiter Trojan Asteroid in the solar-power sail mission. LPSC 2017 - 1828.

  10. Active Sensing Air Pressure Using Differential Absorption Barometric Radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, B.

    2016-12-01

    Tropical storms and other severe weathers cause huge life losses and property damages and have major impacts on public safety and national security. Their observations and predictions need to be significantly improved. This effort tries to develop a feasible active microwave approach that measures surface air pressure, especially over open seas, from space using a Differential-absorption BArometric Radar (DiBAR) operating at 50-55 GHz O2 absorption band in order to constrain assimilated dynamic fields of numerical weather Prediction (NWP) models close to actual conditions. Air pressure is the most important variable that drives atmospheric dynamics, and currently can only be measured by limited in-situ observations over oceans. Even over land there is no uniform coverage of surface air pressure measurements. Analyses show that with the proposed space radar the errors in instantaneous (averaged) pressure estimates can be as low as 4mb ( 1mb) under all weather conditions. NASA Langley research team has made substantial progresses in advancing the DiBAR concept. The feasibility assessment clearly shows the potential of surface barometry using existing radar technologies. The team has also developed a DiBAR system design, fabricated a Prototype-DiBAR (P-DiBAR) for proof-of-concept, conducted laboratory, ground and airborne P-DiBAR tests. The flight test results are consistent with the instrumentation goals. The precision and accuracy of radar surface pressure measurements are within the range of the theoretical analysis of the DiBAR concept. Observational system simulation experiments for space DiBAR performance based on the existing DiBAR technology and capability show substantial improvements in tropical storm predictions, not only for the hurricane track and position but also for the hurricane intensity. DiBAR measurements will provide us an unprecedented level of the prediction and knowledge on global extreme weather and climate conditions.

  11. Beyond the search surface: visual search and attentional engagement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duncan, J; Humphreys, G

    1992-05-01

    Treisman (1991) described a series of visual search studies testing feature integration theory against an alternative (Duncan & Humphreys, 1989) in which feature and conjunction search are basically similar. Here the latter account is noted to have 2 distinct levels: (a) a summary of search findings in terms of stimulus similarities, and (b) a theory of how visual attention is brought to bear on relevant objects. Working at the 1st level, Treisman found that even when similarities were calibrated and controlled, conjunction search was much harder than feature search. The theory, however, can only really be tested at the 2nd level, because the 1st is an approximation. An account of the findings is developed at the 2nd level, based on the 2 processes of input-template matching and spreading suppression. New data show that, when both of these factors are controlled, feature and conjunction search are equally difficult. Possibilities for unification of the alternative views are considered.

  12. Advances in bistatic radar

    CERN Document Server

    Willis, Nick

    2007-01-01

    Advances in Bistatic Radar updates and extends bistatic and multistatic radar developments since publication of Willis' Bistatic Radar in 1991. New and recently declassified military applications are documented. Civil applications are detailed including commercial and scientific systems. Leading radar engineers provide expertise to each of these applications. Advances in Bistatic Radar consists of two major sections: Bistatic/Multistatic Radar Systems and Bistatic Clutter and Signal Processing. Starting with a history update, the first section documents the early and now declassified military

  13. Recommendation on Transition from Primary/Secondary Radar to Secondary- Only Radar Capability

    Science.gov (United States)

    1994-10-01

    Radar Beacon Performance Monitor RCIU Remote Control Interface Unit RCL Remote Communications Link R E&D Research, Engineering and Development RML Radar...rate. 3.1.2.5 Maintenance The current LRRs have limited remote maintenance monitoring (RMM) capabilities via the Remote Control Interface Unit ( RCIU ...1, -2 and FPS-20 radars required an upgrade of some of the radar subsystems, namely the RCIU to respond as an RMS and the CD to interface with radar

  14. Solution of inverse localization problem associated to multistatic radar system

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Boutkhil M.

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This work deals with the problem of inverse localization by a target with the aim to retrieve the position of the target, given the intensity and phase of the electromagnetic waves scattered by this object. Assuming the surface cross section to be known as well as the intensity and phase of the scattered waves, the target position was reconstructed through the echo signals scattered of each bistatic. We develop in the same time a multistatic ambiguity function trough bistatic ambiguity function to investigate several fundamental aspects that determine multistatic radar performance. We used a multistatic radar constructed of two bistatic radars, two transmitters and one receiver.

  15. A technique to obtain a multiparameter radar rainfall algorithm using the probability matching procedure

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gorgucci, E.; Scarchilli, G.

    1997-01-01

    The natural cumulative distributions of rainfall observed by a network of rain gauges and a multiparameter radar are matched to derive multiparameter radar algorithms for rainfall estimation. The use of multiparameter radar measurements in a statistical framework to estimate rainfall is resented in this paper, The techniques developed in this paper are applied to the radar and rain gauge measurement of rainfall observed in central Florida and central Italy. Conventional pointwise estimates of rainfall are also compared. The probability matching procedure, when applied to the radar and surface measurements, shows that multiparameter radar algorithms can match the probability distribution function better than the reflectivity-based algorithms. It is also shown that the multiparameter radar algorithm derived matching the cumulative distribution function of rainfall provides more accurate estimates of rainfall on the ground in comparison to any conventional reflectivity-based algorithm

  16. Asteroid 16 Psyche: Radar Observations and Shape Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shepard, Michael K.; Richardson, James E.; Taylor, Patrick A.; Rodriguez-Ford, Linda A.; Conrad, Al; de Pater, Imke; Adamkovics, Mate; de Kleer, Katherine R.; Males, Jared; Morzinski, Kathleen M.; Miller Close, Laird; Kaasalainen, Mikko; Viikinkoski, Matti; Timerson, Bradley; Reddy, Vishnu; Magri, Christopher; Nolan, Michael C.; Howell, Ellen S.; Warner, Brian D.; Harris, Alan W.

    2016-10-01

    We observed 16 Psyche, the largest M-class asteroid in the main belt, using the S-band radar at Arecibo Observatory. We obtained 18 radar imaging and 6 continuous wave runs in November and December 2015, and combined these with 16 continuous wave runs from 2005 and 6 recent adaptive-optics (AO) images to generate a three-dimensional shape model of Psyche. Our model is consistent with a previously published AO image [Hanus et al. Icarus 226, 1045-1057, 2013] and three multi-chord occultations. Our shape model has dimensions 279 x 232 x 189 km (±10%), Deff = 226 ± 23 km, and is 6% larger than, but within the uncertainties of, the most recently published size and shape model generated from the inversion of lightcurves [Hanus et al., 2013]. Psyche is roughly ellipsoidal but displays a mass-deficit over a region spanning 90° of longitude. There is also evidence for two ~50-70 km wide depressions near its south pole. Our size and published masses lead to an overall bulk density estimate of 4500 ± 1400 kg m-3. Psyche's mean radar albedo of 0.37 ± 0.09 is consistent with a near-surface regolith composed largely of iron-nickel and ~40% porosity. Its radar reflectivity varies by a factor of 1.6 as the asteroid rotates, suggesting global variations in metal abundance or bulk density in the near surface. The variations in radar albedo appear to correlate with large and small-scale shape features. Our size and Psyche's published absolute magnitude lead to an optical albedo of pv = 0.15 ± 0.03, and there is evidence for albedo variegations that correlate with shape features.

  17. Adaptive radar resource management

    CERN Document Server

    Moo, Peter

    2015-01-01

    Radar Resource Management (RRM) is vital for optimizing the performance of modern phased array radars, which are the primary sensor for aircraft, ships, and land platforms. Adaptive Radar Resource Management gives an introduction to radar resource management (RRM), presenting a clear overview of different approaches and techniques, making it very suitable for radar practitioners and researchers in industry and universities. Coverage includes: RRM's role in optimizing the performance of modern phased array radars The advantages of adaptivity in implementing RRMThe role that modelling and

  18. Radar and ARPA manual

    CERN Document Server

    Bole, A G

    2013-01-01

    Radar and ARPA Manual focuses on the theoretical and practical aspects of electronic navigation. The manual first discusses basic radar principles, including principles of range and bearing measurements and picture orientation and presentation. The text then looks at the operational principles of radar systems. Function of units; aerial, receiver, and display principles; transmitter principles; and sitting of units on board ships are discussed. The book also describes target detection, Automatic Radar Plotting Aids (ARPA), and operational controls of radar systems, and then discusses radar plo

  19. Insights into factors contributing to the observability of a submarine at periscope depth by modern radar, Part 2: EM simulation of mast RCS in a realistic sea surface environment

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Smit, JC

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available IEEE-APS Topical Conference on Antennas and Propagation in Wireless Communications (APWC), Cape Town 2-7 September 2012 Insights into factors contributing to the observability of a submarine at periscope depth by modern radar, Part 2: EM... simulation of mast RCS in a realistic sea surface environment Smit JC; Cilliers JE CSIR, Defence, Peace, Safety and Security. PO Box 395, Pretoria, 0001 Abstract Recently, a set of high resolution radar measurements were undertaken in South...

  20. Social Radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-01-01

    RTA HFM-201/RSM PAPER 3 - 1 © 2012 The MITRE Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Social Radar Barry Costa and John Boiney MITRE Corporation...defenders require an integrated set of capabilities that we refer to as a “ social radar.” Such a system would support strategic- to operational-level...situation awareness, alerting, course of action analysis, and measures of effectiveness for each action undertaken. Success of a social radar

  1. Miniaturized Ka-Band Dual-Channel Radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoffman, James P.; Moussessian, Alina; Jenabi, Masud; Custodero, Brian

    2011-01-01

    Smaller (volume, mass, power) electronics for a Ka-band (36 GHz) radar interferometer were required. To reduce size and achieve better control over RFphase versus temperature, fully hybrid electronics were developed for the RF portion of the radar s two-channel receiver and single-channel transmitter. In this context, fully hybrid means that every active RF device was an open die, and all passives were directly attached to the subcarrier. Attachments were made using wire and ribbon bonding. In this way, every component, even small passives, was selected for the fabrication of the two radar receivers, and the devices were mounted relative to each other in order to make complementary components isothermal and to isolate other components from potential temperature gradients. This is critical for developing receivers that can track each other s phase over temperature, which is a key mission driver for obtaining ocean surface height. Fully hybrid, Ka-band (36 GHz) radar transmitter and dual-channel receiver were developed for spaceborne radar interferometry. The fully hybrid fabrication enables control over every aspect of the component selection, placement, and connection. Since the two receiver channels must track each other to better than 100 millidegrees of RF phase over several minutes, the hardware in the two receivers must be "identical," routed the same (same line lengths), and as isothermal as possible. This level of design freedom is not possible with packaged components, which include many internal passive, unknown internal connection lengths/types, and often a single orientation of inputs and outputs.

  2. Evaluating a Radar-Based, Non Contact Streamflow Measurement System in the San Joaquin River at Vernalis, California

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheng, Ralph T.; Gartner, Jeffrey W.; Mason, Jr., Robert R.; Costa, John E.; Plant, William J.; Spicer, Kurt R.; Haeni, F. Peter; Melcher, Nick B.; Keller, William C.; Hayes, Ken

    2004-01-01

    Accurate measurement of flow in the San Joaquin River at Vernalis, California, is vital to a wide range of Federal and State agencies, environmental interests, and water contractors. The U.S. Geological Survey uses a conventional stage-discharge rating technique to determine flows at Vernalis. Since the flood of January 1997, the channel has scoured and filled as much as 20 feet in some sections near the measurement site resulting in an unstable stage-discharge rating. In response to recent advances in measurement techniques and the need for more accurate measurement methods, the Geological Survey has undertaken a technology demonstration project to develop and deploy a radar-based streamflow measuring system on the bank of the San Joaquin River at Vernalis, California. The proposed flow-measurement system consists of a ground-penetrating radar system for mapping channel geometries, a microwave radar system for measuring surface velocities, and other necessary infrastructure. Cross-section information derived from ground penetrating radar provided depths similar to those measured by other instruments during the study. Likewise, surface-velocity patterns and magnitudes measured by the pulsed Doppler radar system are consistent with near surface current measurements derived from acoustic velocity instruments. Since the ratio of surface velocity to mean velocity falls to within a small range of theoretical value, using surface velocity as an index velocity to compute river discharge is feasable. Ultimately, the non-contact radar system may be used to make continuous, near-real-time flow measurements during high and medium flows. This report documents the data collected between April 14, 2002 and May 17, 2002 for the purposes of testing this radar based system. Further analyses of the data collected during this field effort will lead to further development and improvement of the system.

  3. Arecibo and Goldstone radar images of near-Earth Asteroid (469896) 2005 WC1

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lawrence, Kenneth J.; Benner, Lance A. M.; Brozovic, Marina; Ostro, Steven J.; Jao, Joseph S.; Giorgini, Jon D.; Slade, Martin A.; Jurgens, Raymond F.; Nolan, Michael C.; Howell, Ellen S.; Taylor, Patrick A.

    2018-01-01

    We report radar observations of near-Earth asteroid (469896) 2005 WC1 that were obtained at Arecibo (2380 MHz, 13 cm) and Goldstone (8560 MHz, 3.5 cm) on 2005 December 14-15 during the asteroid's approach within 0.020 au The asteroid was a strong radar target. Delay-Doppler images with resolutions as fine as 15 m/pixel were obtained with 2 samples per baud giving a correlated pixel resolution of 7.5 m. The radar images reveal an angular object with 100 m-scale surface facets, radar-dark regions, and an estimated diameter of 400 ± 50 m. The rotation of the facets in the images gives a rotation period of ∼2.6 h that is consistent with the estimated period of 2.582 h ± 0.002 h from optical lightcurves reported by Miles (private communication). 2005 WC1 has a circular polarization ratio of 1.12 ± 0.05 that is one of the highest values known, suggesting a structurally-complex near-surface at centimeter to decimeter spatial scales. It is the first asteroid known with an extremely high circular polarization ratio, relatively low optical albedo, and high radar albedo.

  4. Lava flows in mare imbrium: An evaluation of anomalously low earth-based radar reflectivity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schaber, G.G.; Thompson, T.W.; Zisk, S.H.

    1975-01-01

    The lunar maria reflect two to five times less Earth-based radar power than the highlands, the spectrally blue maria surfaces returning the lowest power levels. This effect of weakening signal return has been attributed to increased signal absorption related to the electrical and magnetic characteristics of the mineral ilmenite (FeTiO3). The surface of Mare Imbrium contains some of the most distinct red-blue colorimetric boundaries and depolarized 70 cm wavelength reflectivity variations on the near side of the Moon. The weakest levels of both 3.8 cm and 70 cm reflectivity within Imbrium are confined to regional mare surfaces of the blue spectral type that can be recognized as stratigraphically unique flow surfaces. Frequency distributions of the 70 cm polarized and depolarized radar return power for five mare surfaces within the basin indicate that signal absorption, and probably the ilmenite content, increases generally from the beginning of the Imbrian Period to the end of the Eratosthenian Period with slight reversal between the end of the Imbrian and beginning of the Eratosthenian. TiO2 calibrated radar reflectivity curves can be utilized for lunar maria geochemical mapping in the same manner as the TiO2 calibrated spectral reflectivity curves of Charette et al. (1974). The long wavelength radar data may be a sensitive indicator of mare chemical variations as it is unaffected by the normal surface rock clutter that includes ray materials from large impact craters. ?? 1975 D. Reidel Publishing Company.

  5. Novel radar techniques and applications

    CERN Document Server

    Klemm, Richard; Lombardo, Pierfrancesco; Nickel, Ulrich

    2017-01-01

    Novel Radar Techniques and Applications presents the state-of-the-art in advanced radar, with emphasis on ongoing novel research and development and contributions from an international team of leading radar experts. This volume covers: Real aperture array radar; Imaging radar and Passive and multistatic radar.

  6. Comparison of space borne radar altimetry and airborne laser altimetry over sea ice in the Fram Strait

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Giles, K.A.; Hvidegaard, Sine Munk

    2006-01-01

    This paper describes the first comparison of satellite radar and airborne laser altimetry over sea ice. In order to investigate the differences between measurements from the two different instruments we explore the statistical properties of the data and determine reasonable scales in space and time...... at which to examine them. The resulting differences between the data sets show that the laser and the radar are reflecting from different surfaces and that the magnitude of the difference decreases with increasing surface air temperature. This suggests that the penetration depth of the radar signal......, into the snow, varies with temperature. The results also show the potential for computing Arctic wide snow depth maps by combining measurements from laser and radar altimeters....

  7. Tree root mapping with ground penetrating radar

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Van Schoor, Abraham M

    2009-09-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, the application of ground penetrating radar (GPR) for the mapping of near surface tree roots is demonstrated. GPR enables tree roots to be mapped in a non-destructive and cost-effective manner and is therefore a useful prospecting...

  8. W-band spaceborne radar observations of atmospheric river events

    Science.gov (United States)

    Matrosov, S. Y.

    2010-12-01

    While the main objective of the world first W-band radar aboard the CloudSat satellite is to provide vertically resolved information on clouds, it proved to be a valuable tool for observing precipitation. The CloudSat radar is generally able to resolve precipitating cloud systems in their vertical entirety. Although measurements from the liquid hydrometer layer containing rainfall are strongly attenuated, special retrieval approaches can be used to estimate rainfall parameters. These approaches are based on vertical gradients of observed radar reflectivity factor rather than on absolute estimates of reflectivity. Concurrent independent estimations of ice cloud parameters in the same vertical column allow characterization of precipitating systems and provide information on coupling between clouds and rainfall they produce. The potential of CloudSat for observations atmospheric river events affecting the West Coast of North America is evaluated. It is shown that spaceborne radar measurements can provide high resolution information on the height of the freezing level thus separating areas of rainfall and snowfall. CloudSat precipitation rate estimates complement information from the surface-based radars. Observations of atmospheric rivers at different locations above the ocean and during landfall help to understand evolutions of atmospheric rivers and their structures.

  9. Ground penetrating radar evaluation of new pavement density.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-02-01

    The objective of this project was to map pavement surface density variations using dielectric : measurements from ground penetrating radar (GPR). The work was carried out as part of an : Asphalt Intelligent Compaction demonstration project on SR 539 ...

  10. The Surface Extraction from TIN based Search-space Minimization (SETSM) algorithm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Noh, Myoung-Jong; Howat, Ian M.

    2017-07-01

    Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) provide critical information for a wide range of scientific, navigational and engineering activities. Submeter resolution, stereoscopic satellite imagery with high geometric and radiometric quality, and wide spatial coverage are becoming increasingly accessible for generating stereo-photogrammetric DEMs. However, low contrast and repeatedly-textured surfaces, such as snow and glacial ice at high latitudes, and mountainous terrains challenge existing stereo-photogrammetric DEM generation techniques, particularly without a-priori information such as existing seed DEMs or the manual setting of terrain-specific parameters. To utilize these data for fully-automatic DEM extraction at a large scale, we developed the Surface Extraction from TIN-based Search-space Minimization (SETSM) algorithm. SETSM is fully automatic (i.e. no search parameter settings are needed) and uses only the sensor model Rational Polynomial Coefficients (RPCs). SETSM adopts a hierarchical, combined image- and object-space matching strategy utilizing weighted normalized cross-correlation with both original distorted and geometrically corrected images for overcoming ambiguities caused by foreshortening and occlusions. In addition, SETSM optimally minimizes search-spaces to extract optimal matches over problematic terrains by iteratively updating object surfaces within a Triangulated Irregular Network, and utilizes a geometric-constrained blunder and outlier detection in object space. We prove the ability of SETSM to mitigate typical stereo-photogrammetric matching problems over a range of challenging terrains. SETSM is the primary DEM generation software for the US National Science Foundation's ArcticDEM project.

  11. Shallow radar (SHARAD) sounding observations of the Medusae Fossae Formation, Mars

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carter, L.M.; Campbell, B.A.; Watters, T.R.; Phillips, R.J.; Putzig, N.E.; Safaeinili, A.; Plaut, J.J.; Okubo, C.H.; Egan, A.F.; Seu, R.; Biccari, D.; Orosei, R.

    2009-01-01

    The SHARAD (shallow radar) sounding radar on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter detects subsurface reflections in the eastern and western parts of the Medusae Fossae Formation (MFF). The radar waves penetrate up to 580 m of the MFF and detect clear subsurface interfaces in two locations: west MFF between 150 and 155?? E and east MFF between 209 and 213?? E. Analysis of SHARAD radargrams suggests that the real part of the permittivity is ???3.0, which falls within the range of permittivity values inferred from MARSIS data for thicker parts of the MFF. The SHARAD data cannot uniquely determine the composition of the MFF material, but the low permittivity implies that the upper few hundred meters of the MFF material has a high porosity. One possibility is that the MFF is comprised of low-density welded or interlocked pyroclastic deposits that are capable of sustaining the steep-sided yardangs and ridges seen in imagery. The SHARAD surface echo power across the MFF is low relative to typical martian plains, and completely disappears in parts of the east MFF that correspond to the radar-dark Stealth region. These areas are extremely rough at centimeter to meter scales, and the lack of echo power is most likely due to a combination of surface roughness and a low near-surface permittivity that reduces the echo strength from any locally flat regions. There is also no radar evidence for internal layering in any of the SHARAD data for the MFF, despite the fact that tens-of-meters scale layering is apparent in infrared and visible wavelength images of nearby areas. These interfaces may not be detected in SHARAD data if their permittivity contrasts are low, or if the layers are discontinuous. The lack of closely spaced internal radar reflectors suggests that the MFF is not an equatorial analog to the current martian polar deposits, which show clear evidence of multiple internal layers in SHARAD data. ?? 2008 Elsevier Inc.

  12. Minimum redundancy MIMO radars

    OpenAIRE

    Chen, Chun-Yang; Vaidyanathan, P. P.

    2008-01-01

    The multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar concept has drawn considerable attention recently. In the traditional single-input multiple-output (SIMO) radar system, the transmitter emits scaled versions of a single waveform. However, in the MIMO radar system, the transmitter transmits independent waveforms. It has been shown that the MIMO radar can be used to improve system performance. Most of the MIMO radar research so far has focused on the uniform array. However, i...

  13. A Novel Compact Wideband TSA Array for Near-Surface Ice Sheet Penetrating Radar Applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Feng; Liu, Xiaojun; Fang, Guangyou

    2014-03-01

    A novel compact tapered slot antenna (TSA) array for near-surface ice sheet penetrating radar applications is presented. This TSA array is composed of eight compact antenna elements which are etched on two 480mm × 283mm FR4 substrates. Each antenna element is fed by a wideband coplanar waveguide (CPW) to coupled strip-line (CPS) balun. The two antenna substrates are connected together with a metallic baffle. To obtain wideband properties, another two metallic baffles are used along broadsides of the array. This array is fed by a 1 × 8 wideband power divider. The measured S11 of the array is less than -10dB in the band of 500MHz-2GHz, and the measured gain is more than 6dBi in the whole band which agrees well with the simulated results.

  14. Ground penetrating radar documents short-term near-surface hydrological changes around Old Faithful Geyser, Yellowstone National Park, USA

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lynne, Bridget Y.; Heasler, Henry; Jaworowski, Cheryl; Smith, Gary J.; Smith, Isaac J.; Foley, Duncan

    2018-04-01

    In April 2015, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) was used to characterize the shallow subsurface (images were collected between two eruptions of Old Faithful Geyser. Each set of time-sequence GPR recordings consisted of four transects aligned to provide coverage near the potential location of the inferred 15 m deep geyser chamber. However, the deepest penetration we could achieve with a 200 MHz GPR antennae was 5 m. Seven time-sequence events were collected over a 48-minute interval to image changes in the near-surface, during pre- and post-eruptive cycles. Time-sequence GPR images revealed a series of possible micro-fractures in a highly porous siliceous sinter in the near-surface that fill and drain repetitively, immediately after an eruption and during the recharge period prior to the next main eruptive event.

  15. Principles of modern radar systems

    CERN Document Server

    Carpentier, Michel H

    1988-01-01

    Introduction to random functions ; signal and noise : the ideal receiver ; performance of radar systems equipped with ideal receivers ; analysis of the operating principles of some types of radar ; behavior of real targets, fluctuation of targets ; angle measurement using radar ; data processing of radar information, radar coverage ; applications to electronic scanning antennas to radar ; introduction to Hilbert spaces.

  16. Implementation and validation of the ISMAR High Frequency Coastal Radar Network in the Gulf of Manfredonia (Mediterranean Sea)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Corgnati, Lorenzo; Mantovani, Carlo; Griffa, Annalisa

    2018-01-01

    In this paper a High Frequency (HF) Coastal Radar Network is described, established and maintained by the Institute of Marine Sciences (ISMAR) of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR) for the measurement of surface current velocities in the Gulf of Manfredonia, located in the semi......-enclosed Adriatic Sea (Mediterranean Sea), during the period 2013-2015. The network consisted of four HF radars that provided hourly sea surface velocity data in real-time mode in a netCDF format compliant to the Climate and Forecast Metadata Conventions CF-1.6 and to the INSPIRE directive. The hourly netCDF files...... are disseminated via a THREDDS catalog supporting OGC compliant distributions and protocols for data visualization, metadata interrogation and data download. HF radar velocity data were validated using in situ velocity measurements by GPS-tracked surface drifters deployed within the radar footprint. The results...

  17. Minimizing the Standard Deviation of Spatially Averaged Surface Cross-Sectional Data from the Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meneghini, Robert; Kim, Hyokyung

    2016-01-01

    For an airborne or spaceborne radar, the precipitation-induced path attenuation can be estimated from the measurements of the normalized surface cross section, sigma 0, in the presence and absence of precipitation. In one implementation, the mean rain-free estimate and its variability are found from a lookup table (LUT) derived from previously measured data. For the dual-frequency precipitation radar aboard the global precipitation measurement satellite, the nominal table consists of the statistics of the rain-free 0 over a 0.5 deg x 0.5 deg latitude-longitude grid using a three-month set of input data. However, a problem with the LUT is an insufficient number of samples in many cells. An alternative table is constructed by a stepwise procedure that begins with the statistics over a 0.25 deg x 0.25 deg grid. If the number of samples at a cell is too few, the area is expanded, cell by cell, choosing at each step that cell that minimizes the variance of the data. The question arises, however, as to whether the selected region corresponds to the smallest variance. To address this question, a second type of variable-averaging grid is constructed using all possible spatial configurations and computing the variance of the data within each region. Comparisons of the standard deviations for the fixed and variable-averaged grids are given as a function of incidence angle and surface type using a three-month set of data. The advantage of variable spatial averaging is that the average standard deviation can be reduced relative to the fixed grid while satisfying the minimum sample requirement.

  18. NOAA high resolution sea surface winds data from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) on the RADARSAT-2 satellite

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)-derived high resolution wind products are calculated from high resolution SAR images of normalized radar cross section (NRCS) of the...

  19. Subsurface characterization by the ground penetrating radar WISDOM/ExoMars 2020

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hervé, Y.; Ciarletti, V.; Le Gall, A. A.; Oudart, N.; Loizeau, D.; Guiffaut, C.; Dorizon, S.

    2017-12-01

    The main objective of the ExoMars 2020 mission is to search for signs of past and/or present life on Mars. Toward this goal, a rover was designed to investigate the shallow subsurface which is the most likely place where signs of life may be preserved, beneath the hostile surface of Mars. The rover of the ExoMars 2020 mission has on board a polarimetric ground penetrating radar called WISDOM (Water Ice Subsurface Deposits Observation on Mars). Thanks to its large frequency bandwidth of 2.5 GHz, WISDOM is able to probe down to a depth of approximately 3 m on sedimentary rock with a vertical resolution of a few centimeters.The main scientific objectives of WISDOM are to characterize the shallow subsurface of Mars, to help understand the local geological context and to identify the most promising location for drilling. The WISDOM team is currently working on the preparation of the scientific return of the ExoMars 2020 mission. In particular, tools are developed to interpret WISDOM experimental data and, more specifically, to extract information from the radar signatures of expected buried reflectors. Insights into the composition of the ground (through the retrieval of its permittivity) and the geological context of the site can be inferred from the radar signature of buried rocks since the shape and the density of rocks in the subsurface is related to the geological processes that have shaped and placed them there (impact, fluvial processes, volcanism). This paper presents results obtained by automatic detection of structures of interest on a radargram, especially radar signature of buried rocks. The algorithm we developed uses a neural network to identify the position of buried rocks/blocs and then a Hough transform to characterize each signature and to estimate the local permittivity of the medium. Firstly, we will test the performances of the algorithm on simulated data constructed with a 3D FDTD code. This code allows us to simulate radar operation in realistic

  20. New Techniques for Radar Altimetry of Sea Ice and the Polar Oceans

    Science.gov (United States)

    Armitage, T. W. K.; Kwok, R.; Egido, A.; Smith, W. H. F.; Cullen, R.

    2017-12-01

    Satellite radar altimetry has proven to be a valuable tool for remote sensing of the polar oceans, with techniques for estimating sea ice thickness and sea surface height in the ice-covered ocean advancing to the point of becoming routine, if not operational, products. Here, we explore new techniques in radar altimetry of the polar oceans and the sea ice cover. First, we present results from fully-focused SAR (FFSAR) altimetry; by accounting for the phase evolution of scatterers in the scene, the FFSAR technique applies an inter-burst coherent integration, potentially over the entire duration that a scatterer remains in the altimeter footprint, which can narrow the effective along track resolution to just 0.5m. We discuss the improvement of using interleaved operation over burst-more operation for applying FFSAR processing to data acquired by future missions, such as a potential CryoSat follow-on. Second, we present simulated sea ice retrievals from the Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn), the instrument that will be launched on the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission in 2021, that is capable of producing swath images of surface elevation. These techniques offer the opportunity to advance our understanding of the physics of the ice-covered oceans, plus new insight into how we interpret more conventional radar altimetry data in these regions.

  1. Seamless Synthetic Aperture Radar Archive for Interferometry Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baker, S.; Baru, C.; Bryson, G.; Buechler, B.; Crosby, C.; Fielding, E.; Meertens, C.; Nicoll, J.; Youn, C.

    2014-11-01

    The NASA Advancing Collaborative Connections for Earth System Science (ACCESS) seamless synthetic aperture radar (SAR) archive (SSARA) project is a collaboration between UNAVCO, the Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and OpenTopography at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) to design and implement a seamless distributed access system for SAR data and derived interferometric SAR (InSAR) data products. A unified application programming interface (API) has been created to search the SAR archives at ASF and UNAVCO, 30 and 90-m SRTM DEM data available through OpenTopography, and tropospheric data from the NASA OSCAR project at JPL. The federated query service provides users a single access point to search for SAR granules, InSAR pairs, and corresponding DEM and tropospheric data products from the four archives, as well as the ability to search and download pre-processed InSAR products from ASF and UNAVCO.

  2. Radar Chart

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The Radar Chart collection is an archived product of summarized radar data. The geographic coverage is the 48 contiguous states of the United States. These hourly...

  3. Improved Detection of Human Respiration Using Data Fusion Basedon a Multistatic UWB Radar

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hao Lv

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available This paper investigated the feasibility for improved detection of human respiration using data fusion based on a multistatic ultra-wideband (UWB radar. UWB-radar-based respiration detection is an emerging technology that has great promise in practice. It can be applied to remotely sense the presence of a human target for through-wall surveillance, post-earthquake search and rescue, etc. In these applications, a human target’s position and posture are not known a priori. Uncertainty of the two factors results in a body orientation issue of UWB radar, namely the human target’s thorax is not always facing the radar. Thus, the radial component of the thorax motion due to respiration decreases and the respiratory motion response contained in UWB radar echoes is too weak to be detected. To cope with the issue, this paper used multisensory information provided by the multistatic UWB radar, which took the form of impulse radios and comprised one transmitting and four separated receiving antennas. An adaptive Kalman filtering algorithm was then designed to fuse the UWB echo data from all the receiving channels to detect the respiratory-motion response contained in those data. In the experiment, a volunteer’s respiration was correctly detected when he curled upon a camp bed behind a brick wall. Under the same scenario, the volunteer’s respiration was detected based on the radar’s single transmitting-receiving channels without data fusion using conventional algorithm, such as adaptive line enhancer and single-channel Kalman filtering. Moreover, performance of the data fusion algorithm was experimentally investigated with different channel combinations and antenna deployments. The experimental results show that the body orientation issue for human respiration detection via UWB radar can be dealt well with the multistatic UWB radar and the Kalman-filter-based data fusion, which can be applied to improve performance of UWB radar in real applications.

  4. Runoff Analysis Considering Orographical Features Using Dual Polarization Radar Rainfall

    Science.gov (United States)

    Noh, Hui-seong; Shin, Hyun-seok; Kang, Na-rae; Lee, Choong-Ke; Kim, Hung-soo

    2013-04-01

    Recently, the necessity for rainfall estimation and forecasting using the radar is being highlighted, due to the frequent occurrence of torrential rainfall resulting from abnormal changes of weather. Radar rainfall data represents temporal and spatial distributions properly and replace the existing rain gauge networks. It is also frequently applied in many hydrologic field researches. However, the radar rainfall data has an accuracy limitation since it estimates rainfall, by monitoring clouds and precipitation particles formed around the surface of the earth(1.5-3km above the surface) or the atmosphere. In a condition like Korea where nearly 70% of the land is covered by mountainous areas, there are lots of restrictions to use rainfall radar, because of the occurrence of beam blocking areas by topography. This study is aiming at analyzing runoff and examining the applicability of (R(Z), R(ZDR) and R(KDP)) provided by the Han River Flood Control Office(HRFCO) based on the basin elevation of Nakdong river watershed. For this purpose, the amount of radar rainfall of each rainfall event was estimated according to three sub-basins of Nakdong river watershed with the average basin elevation above 400m which are Namgang dam, Andong dam and Hapcheon dam and also another three sub-basins with the average basin elevation below 150m which are Waegwan, Changryeong and Goryeong. After runoff analysis using a distribution model, Vflo model, the results were reviewed and compared with the observed runoff. This study estimated the rainfall by using the radar-rainfall transform formulas, (R(Z), R(Z,ZDR) and R(Z,ZDR,KDP) for four stormwater events and compared the results with the point rainfall of the rain gauge. As the result, it was overestimated or underestimated, depending on rainfall events. Also, calculation indicates that the values from R(Z,ZDR) and R(Z,ZDR,KDP) relatively showed the most similar results. Moreover the runoff analysis using the estimated radar rainfall is

  5. Temporal Monitoring of the Soil Freeze-Thaw Cycles over a Snow-Covered Surface by Using Air-Launched Ground-Penetrating Radar

    KAUST Repository

    Jadoon, Khan

    2015-09-18

    We tested an off-ground ground-penetrating radar (GPR) system at a fixed location over a bare agricultural field to monitor the soil freeze-thaw cycles over a snow-covered surface. The GPR system consisted of a monostatic horn antenna combined with a vector network analyzer, providing an ultra-wideband stepped-frequency continuous-wave radar. An antenna calibration experiment was performed to filter antenna and back scattered effects from the raw GPR data. Near the GPR setup, sensors were installed in the soil to monitor the dynamics of soil temperature and dielectric permittivity at different depths. The soil permittivity was retrieved via inversion of time domain GPR data focused on the surface reflection. Significant effects of soil dynamics were observed in the time-lapse GPR, temperature and dielectric permittivity measurements. In particular, five freeze and thaw events were clearly detectable, indicating that the GPR signals respond to the contrast between the dielectric permittivity of frozen and thawed soil. The GPR-derived permittivity was in good agreement with sensor observations. Overall, the off-ground nature of the GPR system permits non-invasive time-lapse observation of the soil freeze-thaw dynamics without disturbing the structure of the snow cover. The proposed method shows promise for the real-time mapping and monitoring of the shallow frozen layer at the field scale.

  6. Temporal Monitoring of the Soil Freeze-Thaw Cycles over a Snow-Covered Surface by Using Air-Launched Ground-Penetrating Radar

    KAUST Repository

    Jadoon, Khan; Weihermller, Lutz; McCabe, Matthew; Moghadas, Davood; Vereecken, Harry; Lambot, Sbastien

    2015-01-01

    We tested an off-ground ground-penetrating radar (GPR) system at a fixed location over a bare agricultural field to monitor the soil freeze-thaw cycles over a snow-covered surface. The GPR system consisted of a monostatic horn antenna combined with a vector network analyzer, providing an ultra-wideband stepped-frequency continuous-wave radar. An antenna calibration experiment was performed to filter antenna and back scattered effects from the raw GPR data. Near the GPR setup, sensors were installed in the soil to monitor the dynamics of soil temperature and dielectric permittivity at different depths. The soil permittivity was retrieved via inversion of time domain GPR data focused on the surface reflection. Significant effects of soil dynamics were observed in the time-lapse GPR, temperature and dielectric permittivity measurements. In particular, five freeze and thaw events were clearly detectable, indicating that the GPR signals respond to the contrast between the dielectric permittivity of frozen and thawed soil. The GPR-derived permittivity was in good agreement with sensor observations. Overall, the off-ground nature of the GPR system permits non-invasive time-lapse observation of the soil freeze-thaw dynamics without disturbing the structure of the snow cover. The proposed method shows promise for the real-time mapping and monitoring of the shallow frozen layer at the field scale.

  7. Temporal Monitoring of the Soil Freeze-Thaw Cycles over a Snow-Covered Surface by Using Air-Launched Ground-Penetrating Radar

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Khan Zaib Jadoon

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available We tested an off-ground ground-penetrating radar (GPR system at a fixed location over a bare agricultural field to monitor the soil freeze-thaw cycles over a snow-covered surface. The GPR system consisted of a monostatic horn antenna combined with a vector network analyzer, providing an ultra-wideband stepped-frequency continuous-wave radar. An antenna calibration experiment was performed to filter antenna and back scattered effects from the raw GPR data. Near the GPR setup, sensors were installed in the soil to monitor the dynamics of soil temperature and dielectric permittivity at different depths. The soil permittivity was retrieved via inversion of time domain GPR data focused on the surface reflection. Significant effects of soil dynamics were observed in the time-lapse GPR, temperature and dielectric permittivity measurements. In particular, five freeze and thaw events were clearly detectable, indicating that the GPR signals respond to the contrast between the dielectric permittivity of frozen and thawed soil. The GPR-derived permittivity was in good agreement with sensor observations. Overall, the off-ground nature of the GPR system permits non-invasive time-lapse observation of the soil freeze-thaw dynamics without disturbing the structure of the snow cover. The proposed method shows promise for the real-time mapping and monitoring of the shallow frozen layer at the field scale.

  8. Combining satellite radar altimetry, SAR surface soil moisture and GRACE total storage changes for hydrological model calibration in a large poorly gauged catchment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    C. Milzow

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available The availability of data is a major challenge for hydrological modelling in large parts of the world. Remote sensing data can be exploited to improve models of ungauged or poorly gauged catchments. In this study we combine three datasets for calibration of a rainfall-runoff model of the poorly gauged Okavango catchment in Southern Africa: (i surface soil moisture (SSM estimates derived from radar measurements onboard the Envisat satellite; (ii radar altimetry measurements by Envisat providing river stages in the tributaries of the Okavango catchment, down to a minimum river width of about one hundred meters; and (iii temporal changes of the Earth's gravity field recorded by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE caused by total water storage changes in the catchment. The SSM data are shown to be helpful in identifying periods with over-respectively underestimation of the precipitation input. The accuracy of the radar altimetry data is validated on gauged subbasins of the catchment and altimetry data of an ungauged subbasin is used for model calibration. The radar altimetry data are important to condition model parameters related to channel morphology such as Manning's roughness. GRACE data are used to validate the model and to condition model parameters related to various storage compartments in the hydrological model (e.g. soil, groundwater, bank storage etc.. As precipitation input the FEWS-Net RFE, TRMM 3B42 and ECMWF ERA-Interim datasets are considered and compared.

  9. Side-looking underground radar (SLUR): Physical modeling and case history

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Daniels, J.J.; Brower, J.

    1998-01-01

    A modification of conventional surface ground-penetrating radar (GPR) was conceived, tested, and successfully applied in the field at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) to investigate waste pits. The modified GPR method consists of making measurements along a traverse line in a sloping trench with the radar's antenna oriented at an angle of up to 45 degree from the horizontal. The direction of propagation of the electromagnetic field for this configuration is not vertical, and the amount of energy scattered from objects that are oriented vertically relative to the energy scattered from horizontal layers is increased. This fundamental feature of side-looking underground radar (SLUR) measurements is illustrated by physical modeling. Measurements made along parallel trenches that are offset at different distances from a vertically oriented object provides GPR cross-sections with a primary plane of investigation that intersects the vertical feature at different depths. SLUR was used at BNL in conjunction with conventional surface GPR measurements (displayed as 3-D blocks and plan-view time slices) to enhance the vertical definition and improve the depth estimates of the waste pits

  10. Space Radar Image of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii

    Science.gov (United States)

    1994-01-01

    This is a deformation map of the south flank of Kilauea volcano on the big island of Hawaii, centered at 19.5 degrees north latitude and 155.25 degrees west longitude. The map was created by combining interferometric radar data -- that is data acquired on different passes of the space shuttle which are then overlayed to obtain elevation information -- acquired by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar during its first flight in April 1994 and its second flight in October 1994. The area shown is approximately 40 kilometers by 80 kilometers (25 miles by 50 miles). North is toward the upper left of the image. The colors indicate the displacement of the surface in the direction that the radar instrument was pointed (toward the right of the image) in the six months between images. The analysis of ground movement is preliminary, but appears consistent with the motions detected by the Global Positioning System ground receivers that have been used over the past five years. The south flank of the Kilauea volcano is among the most rapidly deforming terrains on Earth. Several regions show motions over the six-month time period. Most obvious is at the base of Hilina Pali, where 10 centimeters (4 inches) or more of crustal deformation can be seen in a concentrated area near the coastline. On a more localized scale, the currently active Pu'u O'o summit also shows about 10 centimeters (4 inches) of change near the vent area. Finally, there are indications of additional movement along the upper southwest rift zone, just below the Kilauea caldera in the image. Deformation of the south flank is believed to be the result of movements along faults deep beneath the surface of the volcano, as well as injections of magma, or molten rock, into the volcano's 'plumbing' system. Detection of ground motions from space has proven to be a unique capability of imaging radar technology. Scientists hope to use deformation data acquired by SIR-C/X-SAR and future imaging

  11. A study of different fabrics to increase radar cross section of humans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ödman, Torbjörn; Welinder, Jan; Andersson, Nils; Otterskog, Magnus; Lindén, Maria; Ödman, Natalia; Larsson, Christer

    2015-01-01

    This purpose of the study was to increase the visibility on radar for unprotected pedestrians with the aid of conducting fabric. The experiment comprised measurements of four types of fabric to determine the radio frequency properties, such as radar cross section (RCS) for the vehicle radar frequency 77 GHz and transmission (shielding) in the frequency range 3-18 GHz. Two different thicknesses of polypyrrole (PPy) nonvowen fabric were tested and one thickness for 30 % and 40 % stainless steel fabrics respectively. A jacket with the thinner nonvowen material and one with 40 % steel were tested and compared to an unmodified jacket in the RCS measurement. The measurement showed an increase in RCS of 4 dB for the jacket with the 40 % steel lining compared to the unmodified jacket. The transmission measurement was aimed at determining the fabric with the highest transmission of an incoming radio wave. The 30 % steel fabric and the two thicknesses of the nonvowen fabrics were tested. One practical application is for example the use of radar reflective material in search and rescue (SAR) clothes. The study showed that the 30 % steel fabric was the best candidate for further RCS measurements.

  12. Fiber optic coherent laser radar 3d vision system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sebastian, R.L.; Clark, R.B.; Simonson, D.L.

    1994-01-01

    Recent advances in fiber optic component technology and digital processing components have enabled the development of a new 3D vision system based upon a fiber optic FMCW coherent laser radar. The approach includes a compact scanner with no moving parts capable of randomly addressing all pixels. The system maintains the immunity to lighting and surface shading conditions which is characteristic of coherent laser radar. The random pixel addressability allows concentration of scanning and processing on the active areas of a scene, as is done by the human eye-brain system

  13. Deterministic chaos at the ocean surface: applications and interpretations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. J. Palmer

    1998-01-01

    Full Text Available Ocean surface, grazing-angle radar backscatter data from two separate experiments, one of which provided coincident time series of measured surface winds, were found to exhibit signatures of deterministic chaos. Evidence is presented that the lowest dimensional underlying dynamical system responsible for the radar backscatter chaos is that which governs the surface wind turbulence. Block-averaging time was found to be an important parameter for determining the degree of determinism in the data as measured by the correlation dimension, and by the performance of an artificial neural network in retrieving wind and stress from the radar returns, and in radar detection of an ocean internal wave. The correlation dimensions are lowered and the performance of the deterministic retrieval and detection algorithms are improved by averaging out the higher dimensional surface wave variability in the radar returns.

  14. Effects of target shape and reflection on laser radar cross sections.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Steinvall, O

    2000-08-20

    Laser radar cross sections have been evaluated for a number of ideal targets such as cones, spheres, paraboloids, and cylinders by use of different reflection characteristics. The time-independent cross section is the ratio of the cross section of one of these forms to that of a plate with the same maximum radius. The time-dependent laser radar cross section involves the impulse response from the object shape multiplied by the beam's transverse profile and the surface bidirectional reflection distribution function. It can be clearly seen that knowledge of the combined effect of object shape and reflection characteristics is important for determining the shape and the magnitude of the laser radar return. The results of this study are of interest for many laser radar applications such as ranging, three-dimensional imaging-modeling, tracking, antisensor lasers, and target recognition.

  15. Radar observations and shape model of asteroid 16 Psyche

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shepard, Michael K.; Richardson, James; Taylor, Patrick A.; Rodriguez-Ford, Linda A.; Conrad, Al; de Pater, Imke; Adamkovics, Mate; de Kleer, Katherine; Males, Jared R.; Morzinski, Katie M.; Close, Laird M.; Kaasalainen, Mikko; Viikinkoski, Matti; Timerson, Bradley; Reddy, Vishnu; Magri, Christopher; Nolan, Michael C.; Howell, Ellen S.; Benner, Lance A. M.; Giorgini, Jon D.; Warner, Brian D.; Harris, Alan W.

    2017-01-01

    Using the S-band radar at Arecibo Observatory, we observed 16 Psyche, the largest M-class asteroid in the main belt. We obtained 18 radar imaging and 6 continuous wave runs in November and December 2015, and combined these with 16 continuous wave runs from 2005 and 6 recent adaptive-optics (AO) images (Drummond et al., 2016) to generate a three-dimensional shape model of Psyche. Our model is consistent with a previously published AO image (Hanus et al., 2013) and three multi-chord occultations. Our shape model has dimensions 279 × 232 × 189 km (± 10%), Deff = 226 ± 23 km, and is 6% larger than, but within the uncertainties of, the most recently published size and shape model generated from the inversion of lightcurves (Hanus et al., 2013). Psyche is roughly ellipsoidal but displays a mass-deficit over a region spanning 90° of longitude. There is also evidence for two ∼50-70 km wide depressions near its south pole. Our size and published masses lead to an overall bulk density estimate of 4500 ± 1400 kgm-3. Psyche's mean radar albedo of 0.37 ± 0.09 is consistent with a near-surface regolith composed largely of iron-nickel and ∼40% porosity. Its radar reflectivity varies by a factor of 1.6 as the asteroid rotates, suggesting global variations in metal abundance or bulk density in the near surface. The variations in radar albedo appear to correlate with large and small-scale shape features. Our size and Psyche's published absolute magnitude lead to an optical albedo of pv = 0.15 ± 0.03, and there is evidence for albedo variegations that correlate with shape features.

  16. Radar-Assisted Mapping of Massive Ice in Western Utopia Planitia, Mars: Degradational Mechanisms and Implications for Surface Evolution

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stuurman, C. M.; Levy, J. S.; Holt, J. W.; Harrison, T. N.; Osinski, G. R.

    2015-12-01

    Western Utopia Planitia remains an enigmatic region of Mars. Radar and morphological analyses have framed the area as rich in ground ice, however there exist multiple theories regarding how the ice was emplaced. Here, we combine radar and morphological analyses to characterize the recent history of water ice in western Utopia Planitia. A radar reflective interface found in SHAllow RADar (SHARAD) data in Utopia Planitia is found to correlate with layered mesas 80-110 m thick. Discontinuities in the radar reflective interface relate to degradation of the layered mesas. This work uses the extent of the reflective interface to map the previous extent of the layered mesas, which we believe constitutes the remnants of a large ice sheet formed in the Late Amazonian. The past volume of the ice sheet is to be determined by the SHARAD-assisted mapping. This volume will be related to the recent climate history of western Utopia Planitia.

  17. 10. The surface and interior of venus

    Science.gov (United States)

    Masursky, H.; Kaula, W.M.; McGill, G.E.; Pettengill, G.H.; Phillips, R.J.; Russell, C.T.; Schubert, G.; Shapiro, I.I.

    1977-01-01

    Present ideas about the surface and interior of Venus are based on data obtained from (1) Earth-based radio and radar: temperature, rotation, shape, and topography; (2) fly-by and orbiting spacecraft: gravity and magnetic fields; and (3) landers: winds, local structure, gamma radiation. Surface features, including large basins, crater-like depressions, and a linear valley, have been recognized from recent ground-based radar images. Pictures of the surface acquired by the USSR's Venera 9 and 10 show abundant boulders and apparent wind erosion. On the Pioneer Venus 1978 Orbiter mission, the radar mapper experiment will determine surface heights, dielectric constant values and small-scale slope values along the sub-orbital track between 50??S and 75??N. This experiment will also estimate the global shape and provide coarse radar images (40-80 km identification resolution) of part of the surface. Gravity data will be obtained by radio tracking. Maps combining radar altimetry with spacecraft and ground-based images will be made. A fluxgate magnetometer will measure the magnetic fields around Venus. The radar and gravity data will provide clues to the level of crustal differentiation and tectonic activity. The magnetometer will determine the field variations accurately. Data from the combined experiments may constrain the dynamo mechanism; if so, a deeper understanding of both Venus and Earth will be gained. ?? 1977 D. Reidel Publishing Company.

  18. Combined radar and telemetry system

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rodenbeck, Christopher T.; Young, Derek; Chou, Tina; Hsieh, Lung-Hwa; Conover, Kurt; Heintzleman, Richard

    2017-08-01

    A combined radar and telemetry system is described. The combined radar and telemetry system includes a processing unit that executes instructions, where the instructions define a radar waveform and a telemetry waveform. The processor outputs a digital baseband signal based upon the instructions, where the digital baseband signal is based upon the radar waveform and the telemetry waveform. A radar and telemetry circuit transmits, simultaneously, a radar signal and telemetry signal based upon the digital baseband signal.

  19. Through the looking glass: Applications of ground-penetrating radar in archaeology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stamos, Antonia

    The focus of this dissertation is to present the results of four years' worth of geophysical surveying at four major archaeological sites in Greece and the benefits to the archaeological community. The ground penetrating radar offers an inexpensive, non-destructive solution to the problem of deciding how much of a site is worth excavating and which areas would yield the most promising results. An introduction to the ground penetrating radar, or GPR, the equipment necessary to conduct a geophysical survey in the field, and the methods of data collection and subsequent data processing are all addressed. The benefits to the archeological community are many, and future excavations will incorporate such an important tool for a greater understanding of the site. The history of GPR work in the archaeological field has grown at an astounding rate from its beginnings as a simple tool for petroleum and mining services in the beginning of the twentieth century. By mid-century, the GPR was first applied to archaeological sites rather than its common use by utility companies in locating pipes, cables, tunnels, and shafts. Although the preliminary surveys were little more than a search to locate buried walls, the success of these initial surveys paved the ground for future surveys at other archaeological sites, many testing the radar's efficacy with a myriad of soil conditions and properties. The four sites in which geophysical surveys with a ground penetrating radar were conducted are Azorias on the island of Crete, Kolonna on the island of Aegina, Mochlos Island and Coastal Mochlos on the island of Crete, and Mycenae in the Peloponnese on mainland Greece. These case studies are first presented in terms of their geographical location, their mythology and etymology, where applicable, along with a brief history of excavation and occupation of the site. Additional survey methods were used at Mycenae, including aerial photography and ERDAS Imagine, a silo locating program now

  20. Distress detection, location, and communications using advanced space technology. [satellite-borne synthetic aperture radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sivertson, W. E., Jr.

    1977-01-01

    This paper briefly introduces a concept for low-cost, global, day-night, all-weather disaster warning and assistance. Evolving, advanced space technology with passive radio frequency reflectors in conjunction with an imaging synthetic aperture radar is employed to detect, identify, locate, and provide passive communication with earth users in distress. This concept evolved from a broad NASA research on new global search and rescue techniques. Appropriate airborne radar test results from this research are reviewed and related to potential disaster applications. The analysis indicates the approach has promise for disaster communications relative to floods, droughts, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and severe storms.

  1. Implementation and validation of the ISMAR High Frequency Coastal Radar Network in the Gulf of Manfredonia (Mediterranean Sea)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Corgnati, Lorenzo; Mantovani, Carlo; Griffa, Annalisa

    2017-01-01

    are disseminated via a THREDDS catalog supporting OGC compliant distributions and protocols for data visualization, metadata interrogation and data download. HF radar velocity data were validated using in situ velocity measurements by GPS-tracked surface drifters deployed within the radar footprint. The results...... show a good agreement, with the root mean square (rms) of the difference between radial velocities from HF radar and drifters ranging between 20% - 50% of the drifter velocity rms. The HF radar data have also been compared with subsurface velocity profiles from an upward looking Acoustic Doppler...... are considered. Results show that, at least in the considered period, the velocity in the water column is well correlated, and there is a good agreement between surface HF radar and ADCP data (correlations between 0.95 - 0.75). The Gulf of Manfredonia network has been instrumental to the set up of a core...

  2. RADAR PPI Scope Overlay

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — RADAR PPI Scope Overlays are used to position a RADAR image over a station at the correct resolution. The archive maintains several different RADAR resolution types,...

  3. Meteorite Fall Detection and Analysis via Weather Radar: Worldwide Potential for Citizen Science

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fries, M.; Bresky, C.; Laird, C.; Reddy, V.; Hankey, M.

    2017-12-01

    Meteorite falls can be detected using weather radars, facilitating rapid recovery of meteorites to minimize terrestrial alteration. Imagery from the US NEXRAD radar network reveals over two dozen meteorite falls where meteorites have been recovered, and about another dozen that remain unrecovered. Discovery of new meteorite falls is well suited to "citizen science" and similar outreach activities, as well as automation of computational components into internet-based search tools. Also, there are many more weather radars employed worldwide than those in the US NEXRAD system. Utilization of weather radars worldwide for meteorite recovery can not only expand citizen science opportunities but can also lead to significant improvement in the number of freshly-fallen meteorites available for research. We will discuss the methodologies behind locating and analyzing meteorite falls using weather radar, and how to make them available for citizen science efforts. An important example is the Aquarius Project, a Chicago-area consortium recently formed with the goal of recovering meteorites from Lake Michigan. This project has extensive student involvement geared toward development of actual hardware for recovering meteorites from the lake floor. Those meteorites were identified in weather radar imagery as they fell into the lake from a large meteor on 06 Feb 2017. Another example of public interaction is the meteor detection systems operated by the American Meteor Society (AMS). The AMS website has been developed to allow public reporting of meteors, effectively enabling citizen science to locate and describe significant meteor events worldwide.

  4. A computer vision system for rapid search inspired by surface-based attention mechanisms from human perception.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mohr, Johannes; Park, Jong-Han; Obermayer, Klaus

    2014-12-01

    Humans are highly efficient at visual search tasks by focusing selective attention on a small but relevant region of a visual scene. Recent results from biological vision suggest that surfaces of distinct physical objects form the basic units of this attentional process. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how such surface-based attention mechanisms can speed up a computer vision system for visual search. The system uses fast perceptual grouping of depth cues to represent the visual world at the level of surfaces. This representation is stored in short-term memory and updated over time. A top-down guided attention mechanism sequentially selects one of the surfaces for detailed inspection by a recognition module. We show that the proposed attention framework requires little computational overhead (about 11 ms), but enables the system to operate in real-time and leads to a substantial increase in search efficiency. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. The physical basis for estimating wave-energy spectra with the radar ocean-wave spectrometer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jackson, Frederick C.

    1987-01-01

    The derivation of the reflectivity modulation spectrum of the sea surface for near-nadir-viewing microwave radars using geometrical optics is described. The equations required for the derivation are presented. The derived reflectivity modulation spectrum provides data on the physical basis of the radar ocean-wave spectrometer measurements of ocean-wave directional spectra.

  6. Systems and Methods for Radar Data Communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bunch, Brian (Inventor); Szeto, Roland (Inventor); Miller, Brad (Inventor)

    2013-01-01

    A radar information processing system is operable to process high bandwidth radar information received from a radar system into low bandwidth radar information that may be communicated to a low bandwidth connection coupled to an electronic flight bag (EFB). An exemplary embodiment receives radar information from a radar system, the radar information communicated from the radar system at a first bandwidth; processes the received radar information into processed radar information, the processed radar information configured for communication over a connection operable at a second bandwidth, the second bandwidth lower than the first bandwidth; and communicates the radar information from a radar system, the radar information communicated from the radar system at a first bandwidth.

  7. Combining satellite radar altimetry, SAR surface soil moisture and GRACE total storage changes for hydrological model calibration in a large poorly gauged catchment

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Milzow, Christian; Krogh, Pernille Engelbredt; Bauer-Gottwein, Peter

    2011-01-01

    The availability of data is a major challenge for hydrological modelling in large parts of the world. Remote sensing data can be exploited to improve models of ungauged or poorly gauged catchments. In this study we combine three datasets for calibration of a rainfall-runoff model of the poorly...... gauged Okavango catchment in Southern Africa: (i) surface soil moisture (SSM) estimates derived from radar measurements onboard the Envisat satellite; (ii) radar altimetry measurements by Envisat providing river stages in the tributaries of the Okavango catchment, down to a minimum river width of about...... one hundred meters; and (iii) temporal changes of the Earth's gravity field recorded by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) caused by total water storage changes in the catchment. The SSM data are shown to be helpful in identifying periods with over-respectively underestimation...

  8. Constraining variable density of ice shelves using wide-angle radar measurements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Drews, Reinhard; Brown, Joel; Matsuoka, Kenichi; Witrant, Emmanuel; Philippe, Morgane; Hubbard, Bryn; Pattyn, Frank

    2016-04-01

    The thickness of ice shelves, a basic parameter for mass balance estimates, is typically inferred using hydrostatic equilibrium, for which knowledge of the depth-averaged density is essential. The densification from snow to ice depends on a number of local factors (e.g., temperature and surface mass balance) causing spatial and temporal variations in density-depth profiles. However, direct measurements of firn density are sparse, requiring substantial logistical effort. Here, we infer density from radio-wave propagation speed using ground-based wide-angle radar data sets (10 MHz) collected at five sites on Roi Baudouin Ice Shelf (RBIS), Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. We reconstruct depth to internal reflectors, local ice thickness, and firn-air content using a novel algorithm that includes traveltime inversion and ray tracing with a prescribed shape of the depth-density relationship. For the particular case of an ice-shelf channel, where ice thickness and surface slope change substantially over a few kilometers, the radar data suggest that firn inside the channel is about 5 % denser than outside the channel. Although this density difference is at the detection limit of the radar, it is consistent with a similar density anomaly reconstructed from optical televiewing, which reveals that the firn inside the channel is 4.7 % denser than that outside the channel. Hydrostatic ice thickness calculations used for determining basal melt rates should account for the denser firn in ice-shelf channels. The radar method presented here is robust and can easily be adapted to different radar frequencies and data-acquisition geometries.

  9. Synthetic impulse and aperture radar (SIAR) a novel multi-frequency MIMO radar

    CERN Document Server

    Chen, Baixiao

    2014-01-01

    Analyzes and discusses the operating principle, signal processing method, and experimental results of this advanced radar technology This book systematically discusses the operating principle, signal processing method, target measurement technology, and experimental results of a new kind of radar called synthetic impulse and aperture radar (SIAR). The purpose is to help readers acquire an insight into the concept and principle of the SIAR, to know its operation mode, signal processing method, the difference between the traditional radar and itself, the designing ideals, and the developing me

  10. Numerical Design of Ultra-Wideband Printed Antenna for Surface Penetrating Radar Application

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Achmad Munir

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available Surface penetrating radar (SPR is an imaging device of electromagnetic wave that works by emitting and transmitting a narrow period pulse through the antenna. Due to the use of narrow period pulse, according to the Fourier transform duality, therefore ultra-wideband (UWB antenna becomes one of the most important needs in SPR system. In this paper, a novel UWB printed antenna is proposed to be used for SPR application. Basically, the proposed antenna is developed from a rectangular microstrip antenna fed by symmetric T-shaped. Some investigation methods such as resistive loading, abrupt transition, and ground plane modification are attempted to achieve required characteristics of bandwidth, radiation efficiency, and compactness needed by the system. To obtain the optimum design, the characteristics of proposed antenna are numerically investigated through the physical parameters of antenna. It is shown that proposed antenna deployed on an FR-4 Epoxy substrate with permittivity of 4.3 and thickness of 1.6mm has a compact size of 72.8mm x 60.0mm and a large bandwidth of 50MHz-5GHz which is suitable for SPR application.

  11. Japan Tsunami Current Flows Observed by HF Radars on Two Continents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Toshiyuki Awaji

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available Quantitative real-time observations of a tsunami have been limited to deep-water, pressure-sensor observations of changes in the sea surface elevation and observations of sea level fluctuations at the coast, which are essentially point measurements. Constrained by these data, models have been used for predictions and warning of the arrival of a tsunami, but to date no detailed verification of flow patterns nor area measurements have been possible. Here we present unique HF-radar area observations of the tsunami signal seen in current velocities as the wave train approaches the coast. Networks of coastal HF-radars are now routinely observing surface currents in many countries and we report clear results from five HF radar sites spanning a distance of 8,200 km on two continents following the magnitude 9.0 earthquake off Sendai, Japan, on 11 March 2011. We confirm the tsunami signal with three different methodologies and compare the currents observed with coastal sea level fluctuations at tide gauges. The distance offshore at which the tsunami can be detected, and hence the warning time provided, depends on the bathymetry: the wider the shallow continental shelf, the greater this time. Data from these and other radars around the Pacific rim can be used to further develop radar as an important tool to aid in tsunami observation and warning as well as post-processing comparisons between observation and model predictions.

  12. Meteorite Falls Observed in U.S. Weather Radar Data in 2015 and 2016 (To Date)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fries, Marc; Fries, Jeffrey; Hankey, Mike; Matson, Robert

    2016-01-01

    reports of sonic booms or electrophonic noise are recorded in the AMS eyewitness reports, but videos of the event show a relatively long-lasting fireball with fragmentation. Evidence of falling meteorites is seen in radar imagery from the KAMA and KLBB radars defining a roughly WNW to ESE trend with the dominant wind direction. This event featured favorable search ground composed mostly of farmland and ranchland and was extensively searched. Rather surprisingly, only a single L5 chondrite of 36.2g has been recovered to date.

  13. Ground Penetrating Radar Imaging of Buried Metallic Objects

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Polat, A. Burak; Meincke, Peter

    2001-01-01

    During the past decade there has been considerable research on ground penetrating radar (GPR) tomography for detecting objects such as pipes, cables, mines and barrels buried under the surface of the Earth. While the earlier researches were all based on the assumption of a homogeneous background...

  14. Development of Antennas for Subsurface Radars within ACE

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Yarovoy, Alexander; Meincke, Peter; Dauvignac, Jean-Yves

    2007-01-01

    The paper gives an overview of the joint activities of the ACE-2 partners in the area of antennas for surface penetrating radar. Main areas of joint research and development are discussed and main results of joint activities are presented. Special attention is given to experimental verification...

  15. Array-Based Ultrawideband through-Wall Radar: Prediction and Assessment of Real Radar Abilities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nadia Maaref

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper deals with a new through-the-wall (TTW radar demonstrator for the detection and the localisation of people in a room (in a noncooperative way with the radar situated outside but in the vicinity of the first wall. After modelling the propagation through various walls and quantifying the backscattering by the human body, an analysis of the technical considerations which aims at defining the radar design is presented. Finally, an ultrawideband (UWB frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW radar is proposed, designed, and implemented. Some representative trials show that this radar is able to localise and track moving people behind a wall in real time.

  16. Intercomparison of attenuation correction algorithms for single-polarized X-band radars

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lengfeld, K.; Berenguer, M.; Sempere Torres, D.

    2018-03-01

    Attenuation due to liquid water is one of the largest uncertainties in radar observations. The effects of attenuation are generally inversely proportional to the wavelength, i.e. observations from X-band radars are more affected by attenuation than those from C- or S-band systems. On the other hand, X-band radars can measure precipitation fields in higher temporal and spatial resolution and are more mobile and easier to install due to smaller antennas. A first algorithm for attenuation correction in single-polarized systems was proposed by Hitschfeld and Bordan (1954) (HB), but it gets unstable in case of small errors (e.g. in the radar calibration) and strong attenuation. Therefore, methods have been developed that restrict attenuation correction to keep the algorithm stable, using e.g. surface echoes (for space-borne radars) and mountain returns (for ground radars) as a final value (FV), or adjustment of the radar constant (C) or the coefficient α. In the absence of mountain returns, measurements from C- or S-band radars can be used to constrain the correction. All these methods are based on the statistical relation between reflectivity and specific attenuation. Another way to correct for attenuation in X-band radar observations is to use additional information from less attenuated radar systems, e.g. the ratio between X-band and C- or S-band radar measurements. Lengfeld et al. (2016) proposed such a method based isotonic regression of the ratio between X- and C-band radar observations along the radar beam. This study presents a comparison of the original HB algorithm and three algorithms based on the statistical relation between reflectivity and specific attenuation as well as two methods implementing additional information of C-band radar measurements. Their performance in two precipitation events (one mainly convective and the other one stratiform) shows that a restriction of the HB is necessary to avoid instabilities. A comparison with vertically pointing

  17. The ship-borne infrared searching and tracking system based on the inertial platform

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Yan; Zhang, Haibo

    2011-08-01

    As a result of the radar system got interferenced or in the state of half silent ,it can cause the guided precision drop badly In the modern electronic warfare, therefore it can lead to the equipment depended on electronic guidance cannot strike the incoming goals exactly. It will need to rely on optoelectronic devices to make up for its shortcomings, but when interference is in the process of radar leading ,especially the electro-optical equipment is influenced by the roll, pitch and yaw rotation ,it can affect the target appear outside of the field of optoelectronic devices for a long time, so the infrared optoelectronic equipment can not exert the superiority, and also it cannot get across weapon-control system "reverse bring" missile against incoming goals. So the conventional ship-borne infrared system unable to track the target of incoming quickly , the ability of optoelectronic rivalry declines heavily.Here we provide a brand new controlling algorithm for the semi-automatic searching and infrared tracking based on inertial navigation platform. Now it is applying well in our XX infrared optoelectronic searching and tracking system. The algorithm is mainly divided into two steps: The artificial mode turns into auto-searching when the deviation of guide exceeds the current scene under the course of leading for radar.When the threshold value of the image picked-up is satisfied by the contrast of the target in the searching scene, the speed computed by using the CA model Least Square Method feeds back to the speed loop. And then combine the infrared information to accomplish the closed-loop control of the infrared optoelectronic system tracking. The algorithm is verified via experiment. Target capturing distance is 22.3 kilometers on the great lead deviation by using the algorithm. But without using the algorithm the capturing distance declines 12 kilometers. The algorithm advances the ability of infrared optoelectronic rivalry and declines the target capturing

  18. Inversion for atmosphere duct parameters using real radar sea clutter

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sheng Zheng; Fang Han-Xian

    2012-01-01

    This paper addresses the problem of estimating the lower atmospheric refractivity (M profile) under nonstandard propagation conditions frequently encountered in low altitude maritime radar applications. The vertical structure of the refractive environment is modeled using five parameters and the horizontal structure is modeled using five parameters. The refractivity model is implemented with and without a priori constraint on the duct strength as might be derived from soundings or numerical weather-prediction models. An electromagnetic propagation model maps the refractivity structure into a replica field. Replica fields are compared with the observed clutter using a squared-error objective function. A global search for the 10 environmental parameters is performed using genetic algorithms. The inversion algorithm is implemented on the basis of S-band radar sea-clutter data from Wallops Island, Virginia (SPANDAR). Reference data are from range-dependent refractivity profiles obtained with a helicopter. The inversion is assessed (i) by comparing the propagation predicted from the radar-inferred refractivity profiles with that from the helicopter profiles, (ii) by comparing the refractivity parameters from the helicopter soundings with those estimated. This technique could provide near-real-time estimation of ducting effects. (geophysics, astronomy, and astrophysics)

  19. Novel radar techniques and applications

    CERN Document Server

    Klemm, Richard; Koch, Wolfgang

    2017-01-01

    Novel Radar Techniques and Applications presents the state-of-the-art in advanced radar, with emphasis on ongoing novel research and development and contributions from an international team of leading radar experts. This volume covers: Waveform diversity and cognitive radar and Target tracking and data fusion.

  20. Searching for Signs, Symbols, and Icons: Effects of Time of Day, Visual Complexity, and Grouping

    Science.gov (United States)

    McDougall, Sine; Tyrer, Victoria; Folkard, Simon

    2006-01-01

    Searching for icons, symbols, or signs is an integral part of tasks involving computer or radar displays, head-up displays in aircraft, or attending to road traffic signs. Icons therefore need to be designed to optimize search times, taking into account the factors likely to slow down visual search. Three factors likely to adversely affect visual…

  1. Space radar image of Mauna Loa, Hawaii

    Science.gov (United States)

    1995-01-01

    This image of the Mauna Loa volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii shows the capability of imaging radar to map lava flows and other volcanic structures. Mauna Loa has erupted more than 35 times since the island was first visited by westerners in the early 1800s. The large summit crater, called Mokuaweoweo Caldera, is clearly visible near the center of the image. Leading away from the caldera (towards top right and lower center) are the two main rift zones shown here in orange. Rift zones are areas of weakness within the upper part of the volcano that are often ripped open as new magma (molten rock) approaches the surface at the start of an eruption. The most recent eruption of Mauna Loa was in March and April 1984, when segments of the northeast rift zones were active. If the height of the volcano was measured from its base on the ocean floor instead of from sea level, Mauna Loa would be the tallest mountain on Earth. Its peak (center of the image) rises more than 8 kilometers (5 miles) above the ocean floor. The South Kona District, known for cultivation of macadamia nuts and coffee, can be seen in the lower left as white and blue areas along the coast. North is toward the upper left. The area shown is 41.5 by 75 kilometers (25.7 by 46.5 miles), centered at 19.5 degrees north latitude and 155.6 degrees west longitude. The image was acquired by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/ X-SAR) aboard the space shuttle Endeavour on its 36th orbit on October 2, 1994. The radar illumination is from the left of the image. The colors in this image were obtained using the following radar channels: red represents the L-band (horizontally transmitted and received); green represents the L-band (horizontally transmitted, vertically received); blue represents the C-band (horizontally transmitted, vertically received). The resulting color combinations in this radar image are caused by differences in surface roughness of the lava flows. Smoother flows

  2. Comparison of Monthly Mean Cloud Fraction and Cloud Optical depth Determined from Surface Cloud Radar, TOVS, AVHRR, and MODIS over Barrow, Alaska

    Science.gov (United States)

    Uttal, Taneil; Frisch, Shelby; Wang, Xuan-Ji; Key, Jeff; Schweiger, Axel; Sun-Mack, Sunny; Minnis, Patrick

    2005-01-01

    A one year comparison is made of mean monthly values of cloud fraction and cloud optical depth over Barrow, Alaska (71 deg 19.378 min North, 156 deg 36.934 min West) between 35 GHz radar-based retrievals, the TOVS Pathfinder Path-P product, the AVHRR APP-X product, and a MODIS based cloud retrieval product from the CERES-Team. The data sets represent largely disparate spatial and temporal scales, however, in this paper, the focus is to provide a preliminary analysis of how the mean monthly values derived from these different data sets compare, and determine how they can best be used separately, and in combination to provide reliable estimates of long-term trends of changing cloud properties. The radar and satellite data sets described here incorporate Arctic specific modifications that account for cloud detection challenges specific to the Arctic environment. The year 2000 was chosen for this initial comparison because the cloud radar data was particularly continuous and reliable that year, and all of the satellite retrievals of interest were also available for the year 2000. Cloud fraction was chosen as a comparison variable as accurate detection of cloud is the primary product that is necessary for any other cloud property retrievals. Cloud optical depth was additionally selected as it is likely the single cloud property that is most closely correlated to cloud influences on surface radiation budgets.

  3. The use of Ground Penetrating Radar in coastal research, archeaological investigations, lake studies, peat layer measurments and applied research in Estonia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vilumaa, Kadri; Tõnisson, Hannes; Orviku, Kaarel

    2014-05-01

    Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is mainly used for scientific research in coastal geology in the Institute of Ecology at Tallinn University. We currently use SIR-3000 radar with 100, 270 , 300 and 500 MHz antennae. Our main targets have been detecting the thickness of soil and sand layers and finding out the layers in coastal sediments which reflect extreme storm events. Our GPR studies in various settings have suggested that the internal structures of the ridge-dune complexes are dominated by numerous layers dipping in various directions. Such information helps us to reconstruct and understand prevailing processes during their formation (e.g. seaward dipping lamination in coastal ridge-dune complexes indicating cross-shore and wave-induced transport of the sediments). Currently, we are trying to elaborate methodology for distinguishing the differences between aeolian and wave transported sediments by using GPR. However, paludified landscapes (often covered by water), very rough surface (numerous bushes and soft surface), moderate micro topography has slowed this process significantly. Moreover, we have been able to use GPR during the winter period (applied on ice or snow) and compare the quality of our results with the measurements taken during the summer period. We have found that smooth surface (in winter) helps detecting very strong signal differences (border between different sediment types - sand, peat, silt, etc.) but reduces the quality of the signal to the level where the detection of sedimentation patterns within one material (e.g. tilted layers in sand) is difficult. We have carried out several other science-related studies using GPR. These studies include determining the thickness of peat layer in bogs (to calculate the volume of accumulated peat or to find most suitable locations for coring), measuring the thickness of mud and gyttja layer in lakes (to find most suitable locations for coring, reconstructing initial water level of the lake or calculating

  4. Radar remote sensing in biology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moore, Richard K.; Simonett, David S.

    1967-01-01

    The present status of research on discrimination of natural and cultivated vegetation using radar imaging systems is sketched. The value of multiple polarization radar in improved discrimination of vegetation types over monoscopic radars is also documented. Possible future use of multi-frequency, multi-polarization radar systems for all weather agricultural survey is noted.

  5. Multi-Sensor Methods for Mobile Radar Motion Capture and Compensation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nakata, Robert

    Remote sensing has many applications, including surveying and mapping, geophysics exploration, military surveillance, search and rescue and counter-terrorism operations. Remote sensor systems typically use visible image, infrared or radar sensors. Camera based image sensors can provide high spatial resolution but are limited to line-of-sight capture during daylight. Infrared sensors have lower resolution but can operate during darkness. Radar sensors can provide high resolution motion measurements, even when obscured by weather, clouds and smoke and can penetrate walls and collapsed structures constructed with non-metallic materials up to 1 m to 2 m in depth depending on the wavelength and transmitter power level. However, any platform motion will degrade the target signal of interest. In this dissertation, we investigate alternative methodologies to capture platform motion, including a Body Area Network (BAN) that doesn't require external fixed location sensors, allowing full mobility of the user. We also investigated platform stabilization and motion compensation techniques to reduce and remove the signal distortion introduced by the platform motion. We evaluated secondary ultrasonic and radar sensors to stabilize the platform resulting in an average 5 dB of Signal to Interference Ratio (SIR) improvement. We also implemented a Digital Signal Processing (DSP) motion compensation algorithm that improved the SIR by 18 dB on average. These techniques could be deployed on a quadcopter platform and enable the detection of respiratory motion using an onboard radar sensor.

  6. Signal processing in noise waveform radar

    CERN Document Server

    Kulpa, Krzysztof

    2013-01-01

    This book is devoted to the emerging technology of noise waveform radar and its signal processing aspects. It is a new kind of radar, which use noise-like waveform to illuminate the target. The book includes an introduction to basic radar theory, starting from classical pulse radar, signal compression, and wave radar. The book then discusses the properties, difficulties and potential of noise radar systems, primarily for low-power and short-range civil applications. The contribution of modern signal processing techniques to making noise radar practical are emphasized, and application examples

  7. Three dimensional numerical modeling for ground penetrating radar using finite difference time domain (FDTD) method; Jikan ryoiki yugen sabunho ni yoru chika radar no sanjigen suchi modeling

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sanada, Y; Ashida, Y; Sassa, K [Kyoto University, Kyoto (Japan)

    1996-10-01

    3-D numerical modeling by FDTD method was studied for ground penetrating radar. Radar radiates electromagnetic wave, and determines the existence and distance of objects by reflection wave. Ground penetrating radar uses the above functions for underground surveys, however, its resolution and velocity analysis accuracy are problems. In particular, propagation characteristics of electromagnetic wave in media such as heterogeneous and anisotropic soil and rock are essential. The behavior of electromagnetic wave in the ground could be precisely reproduced by 3-D numerical modeling using FDTD method. FDTD method makes precise analysis in time domain and electric and magnetic fields possible by sequentially calculating the difference equation of Maxwell`s equation. Because of the high calculation efficiency of FDTD method, more precise complicated analysis can be expected by using the latest advanced computers. The numerical model and calculation example are illustrated for surface type electromagnetic pulse ground penetrating radar assuming the survey of steel pipes of 1m deep. 4 refs., 3 figs., 1 tab.

  8. Surface deformation analysis over Vrancea seismogenic area through radar and GPS geospatial data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zoran, Maria A.; Savastru, Roxana S.; Savastru, Dan M.; Serban, Florin S.; Teleaga, Delia M.; Mateciuc, Doru N.

    2017-10-01

    Time series analysis of GPS (Global Positioning Systems) and InSAR (Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar) data are important tools for Earth's surface deformation assessment, which can result from a wide range of geological phenomena like as earthquakes, landslides or ground water level changes. The aim of this paper was to identify several types of earthquake precursors that might be observed from geospatial data in Vrancea seismogenic region in Romania. Continuous GPS Romanian network stations and few field campaigns data recorded between 2005-2012 years revealed a displacement of about 5 or 6 millimeters per year in horizontal direction relative motion, and a few millimeters per year in vertical direction. In order to assess possible deformations due to earthquakes and respectively for possible slow deformations, have been used also time series Sentinel 1 satellite data available for Vrancea zone during October 2014 till October 2016 to generate two types of interferograms (short-term and medium- term). During investigated period were not recorded medium or strong earthquakes, so interferograms over test area revealed small displacements on vertical direction (subsidence or uplifts) of 5-10 millimeters per year. Based on GPS continuous network data and satellite Sentinel 1 results, different possible tectonic scenarios were developed. The localization of horizontal and vertical motions, fault slip, and surface deformation of the continental blocks provides new information, in support of different geodynamic models for Vrancea tectonic active region in Romania and Europe.

  9. Radar Weather Observation

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Radar Weather Observation is a set of archived historical manuscripts stored on microfiche. The primary source of these radar weather observations manuscript records...

  10. Deep Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) WIPL-D Models of Buried Sub-Surface Radiators

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Norgard, John D; Wicks, Michael C; Musselman, Randy L

    2005-01-01

    .... A new Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) concept is proposed in this paper to use subsurface radiators, delivered as earth penetrating non-explosive, electronic e-bombs, as the source of strong radiated transmissions for GPR experiments...

  11. A review of array radars

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brookner, E.

    1981-10-01

    Achievements in the area of array radars are illustrated by such activities as the operational deployment of the large high-power, high-range-resolution Cobra Dane; the operational deployment of two all-solid-state high-power, large UHF Pave Paws radars; and the development of the SAM multifunction Patriot radar. This paper reviews the following topics: array radars steered in azimuth and elevation by phase shifting (phase-phase steered arrays); arrays steered + or - 60 deg, limited scan arrays, hemispherical coverage, and omnidirectional coverage arrays; array radars steering electronically in only one dimension, either by frequency or by phase steering; and array radar antennas which use no electronic scanning but instead use array antennas for achieving low antenna sidelobes.

  12. Doppler radar physiological sensing

    CERN Document Server

    Lubecke, Victor M; Droitcour, Amy D; Park, Byung-Kwon; Singh, Aditya

    2016-01-01

    Presents a comprehensive description of the theory and practical implementation of Doppler radar-based physiological monitoring. This book includes an overview of current physiological monitoring techniques and explains the fundamental technology used in remote non-contact monitoring methods. Basic radio wave propagation and radar principles are introduced along with the fundamentals of physiological motion and measurement. Specific design and implementation considerations for physiological monitoring radar systems are then discussed in detail. The authors address current research and commercial development of Doppler radar based physiological monitoring for healthcare and other applications.

  13. Radar Image, Hokkaido, Japan

    Science.gov (United States)

    2000-01-01

    The southeast part of the island of Hokkaido, Japan, is an area dominated by volcanoes and volcanic caldera. The active Usu Volcano is at the lower right edge of the circular Lake Toya-Ko and near the center of the image. The prominent cone above and to the left of the lake is Yotei Volcano with its summit crater. The city of Sapporo lies at the base of the mountains at the top of the image and the town of Yoichi -- the hometown of SRTM astronaut Mamoru Mohri -- is at the upper left edge. The bay of Uchiura-Wan takes up the lower center of the image. In this image, color represents elevation, from blue at the lowest elevations to white at the highest. The radar image has been overlaid to provide more details of the terrain. Due to a processing problem, an island in the center of this crater lake is missing and will be properly placed when further SRTM swaths are processed. The horizontal banding in this image is a processing artifact that will be removed when the navigation information collected by SRTM is fully calibrated. This image was acquired by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, launched on February 11, 2000. SRTM used the same radar instrument that comprised the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) that flew twice on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1994. SRTM was designed to collect three-dimensional measurements of the Earth's surface. To collect the 3-D data, engineers added a 60-meter-long (200-foot) mast, installed additional C-band and X-band antennas, and improved tracking and navigation devices. The mission is a cooperative project between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), and the German and Italian space agencies. It is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, Washington, DC. Size: 100 by 150 kilometers (62

  14. Analysis, comparison, and modeling of radar interferometry, date of surface deformation signals associated with underground explosions, mine collapses and earthquakes. Phase I: underground explosions, Nevada Test Site

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Foxall, W; Vincent, P; Walter, W

    1999-01-01

    We have previously presented simple elastic deformation modeling results for three classes of seismic events of concern in monitoring the CTBT-underground explosions, mine collapses and earthquakes. Those results explored the theoretical detectability of each event type using synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR) based on commercially available satellite data. In those studies we identified and compared the characteristics of synthetic interferograms that distinguish each event type, as well the ability of the interferograms to constrain source parameters. These idealized modeling results, together with preliminary analysis of InSAR data for the 1995 mb 5.2 Solvay mine collapse in southwestern Wyoming, suggested that InSAR data used in conjunction with regional seismic monitoring holds great potential for CTBT discrimination and seismic source analysis, as well as providing accurate ground truth parameters for regional calibration events. In this paper we further examine the detectability and ''discriminating'' power of InSAR by presenting results from InSAR data processing, analysis and modeling of the surface deformation signals associated with underground explosions. Specifically, we present results of a detailed study of coseismic and postseismic surface deformation signals associated with underground nuclear and chemical explosion tests at the Nevada Test Site (NTS). Several interferograms were formed from raw ERS-1/2 radar data covering different time spans and epochs beginning just prior to the last U.S. nuclear tests in 1992 and ending in 1996. These interferograms have yielded information about the nature and duration of the source processes that produced the surface deformations associated with these events. A critical result of this study is that significant post-event surface deformation associated with underground nuclear explosions detonated at depths in excess of 600 meters can be detected using differential radar interferometry. An

  15. Development of Radar Control system for Multi-mode Active Phased Array Radar for atmospheric probing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yasodha, Polisetti; Jayaraman, Achuthan; Thriveni, A.

    2016-07-01

    Modern multi-mode active phased array radars require highly efficient radar control system for hassle free real time radar operation. The requirement comes due to the distributed architecture of the active phased array radar, where each antenna element in the array is connected to a dedicated Transmit-Receive (TR) module. Controlling the TR modules, which are generally few hundreds in number, and functioning them in synchronisation, is a huge task during real time radar operation and should be handled with utmost care. Indian MST Radar, located at NARL, Gadanki, which is established during early 90's, as an outcome of the middle atmospheric program, is a remote sensing instrument for probing the atmosphere. This radar has a semi-active array, consisting of 1024 antenna elements, with limited beam steering, possible only along the principle planes. To overcome the limitations and difficulties, the radar is being augmented into fully active phased array, to accomplish beam agility and multi-mode operations. Each antenna element is excited with a dedicated 1 kW TR module, located in the field and enables to position the radar beam within 20° conical volume. A multi-channel receiver makes the radar to operate in various modes like Doppler Beam Swinging (DBS), Spaced Antenna (SA), Frequency Domain Interferometry (FDI) etc. Present work describes the real-time radar control (RC) system for the above described active phased array radar. The radar control system consists of a Spartan 6 FPGA based Timing and Control Signal Generator (TCSG), and a computer containing the software for controlling all the subsystems of the radar during real-time radar operation and also for calibrating the radar. The main function of the TCSG is to generate the control and timing waveforms required for various subsystems of the radar. Important components of the RC system software are (i) TR module configuring software which does programming, controlling and health parameter monitoring of the

  16. Radar Remote Sensing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosen, Paul A.

    2012-01-01

    This lecture was just a taste of radar remote sensing techniques and applications. Other important areas include Stereo radar grammetry. PolInSAR for volumetric structure mapping. Agricultural monitoring, soil moisture, ice-mapping, etc. The broad range of sensor types, frequencies of observation and availability of sensors have enabled radar sensors to make significant contributions in a wide area of earth and planetary remote sensing sciences. The range of applications, both qualitative and quantitative, continue to expand with each new generation of sensors.

  17. Radar Observations of Convective Systems from a High-Altitude Aircraft

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heymsfield, G.; Geerts, B.; Tian, L.

    1999-01-01

    Reflectivity data collected by the precipitation radar on board the tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite, orbiting at 350 km altitude, are compared to reflectivity data collected nearly simultaneously by a doppler radar aboard the NASA ER-2 flying at 19-20 km altitude, i.e. above even the deepest convection. The TRMM precipitation radar is a scanning device with a ground swath width of 215 km, and has a resolution of about a4.4 km in the horizontal and 250 m in the vertical (125 m in the core swath 48 km wide). The TRMM radar has a wavelength of 217 cm (13.8 GHz) and the Nadir mirror echo below the surface is used to correct reflectivity for loss by attenuation. The ER-2 Doppler radar (EDOP) has two antennas, one pointing to the nadir, 34 degrees forward. The forward pointing beam receives both the normal and the cross-polarized echos, so the linear polarization ratio field can be monitored. EDOP has a wavelength of 3.12 cm (9.6 GHz), a vertical resolution of 37.5 m and a horizontal along-track resolution of about 100 m. The 2-D along track airflow field can be synthesized from the radial velocities of both beams, if a reflectivity-based hydrometer fall speed relation can be assumed. It is primarily the superb vertical resolution that distinguishes EDOP from other ground-based or airborne radars. Two experiments were conducted during 1998 into validate TRMM reflectivity data over convection and convectively-generated stratiform precipitation regions. The Teflun-A (TEXAS-Florida Underflight) experiment, was conducted in April and May and focused on mesoscale convective systems mainly in southeast Texas. TEFLUN-B was conducted in August-September in central Florida, in coordination with CAMEX-3 (Convection and Moisture Experiment). The latter was focused on hurricanes, especially during landfall, whereas TEFLUN-B concentrated on central; Florida convection, which is largely driven and organized by surface heating and ensuing sea breeze circulations

  18. Quantitative precipitation estimation in complex orography using quasi-vertical profiles of dual polarization radar variables

    Science.gov (United States)

    Montopoli, Mario; Roberto, Nicoletta; Adirosi, Elisa; Gorgucci, Eugenio; Baldini, Luca

    2017-04-01

    Weather radars are nowadays a unique tool to estimate quantitatively the rain precipitation near the surface. This is an important task for a plenty of applications. For example, to feed hydrological models, mitigate the impact of severe storms at the ground using radar information in modern warning tools as well as aid the validation studies of satellite-based rain products. With respect to the latter application, several ground validation studies of the Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) products have recently highlighted the importance of accurate QPE from ground-based weather radars. To date, a plenty of works analyzed the performance of various QPE algorithms making use of actual and synthetic experiments, possibly trained by measurement of particle size distributions and electromagnetic models. Most of these studies support the use of dual polarization variables not only to ensure a good level of radar data quality but also as a direct input in the rain estimation equations. Among others, one of the most important limiting factors in radar QPE accuracy is the vertical variability of particle size distribution that affects at different levels, all the radar variables acquired as well as rain rates. This is particularly impactful in mountainous areas where the altitudes of the radar sampling is likely several hundred of meters above the surface. In this work, we analyze the impact of the vertical profile variations of rain precipitation on several dual polarization radar QPE algorithms when they are tested a in complex orography scenario. So far, in weather radar studies, more emphasis has been given to the extrapolation strategies that make use of the signature of the vertical profiles in terms of radar co-polar reflectivity. This may limit the use of the radar vertical profiles when dual polarization QPE algorithms are considered because in that case all the radar variables used in the rain estimation process should be consistently extrapolated at the surface

  19. Principles of modern radar radar applications

    CERN Document Server

    Scheer, James A

    2013-01-01

    Principles of Modern Radar: Radar Applications is the third of the three-volume seriesof what was originally designed to be accomplished in one volume. As the final volumeof the set, it finishes the original vision of a complete yet bounded reference for radartechnology. This volume describes fifteen different system applications or class ofapplications in more detail than can be found in Volumes I or II.As different as the applications described, there is a difference in how these topicsare treated by the authors. Whereas in Volumes I and II there is strict adherence tochapter format and leve

  20. Assimilation of Wave Imaging Radar Observations for Real-Time Wave-by-Wave Forecasting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haller, M. C.; Simpson, A. J.; Walker, D. T.; Lynett, P. J.; Pittman, R.; Honegger, D.

    2016-02-01

    It has been shown in various studies that a controls system can dramatically improve Wave Energy Converter (WEC) power production by tuning the device's oscillations to the incoming wave field, as well as protect WEC devices by decoupling them in extreme wave conditions. A requirement of the most efficient controls systems is a phase-resolved, "deterministic" surface elevation profile, alerting the device to what it will experience in the near future. The current study aims to demonstrate a deterministic method of wave forecasting through the pairing of an X-Band marine radar with a predictive Mild Slope Equation (MSE) wave model. Using the radar as a remote sensing technique, the wave field up to 1-4 km surrounding a WEC device can be resolved. Individual waves within the radar scan are imaged through the contrast between high intensity wave faces and low intensity wave troughs. Using a recently developed method, radar images are inverted into the radial component of surface slope, shown in the figure provided using radar data from Newport, Oregon. Then, resolved radial slope images are assimilated into the MSE wave model. This leads to a best-fit model hindcast of the waves within the domain. The hindcast is utilized as an initial condition for wave-by-wave forecasting with a target forecast horizon of 3-5 minutes (tens of wave periods). The methodology is currently being tested with synthetic data and comparisons with field data are imminent.

  1. Design and manufacture of radar absorbing wind turbine blades - final report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2005-02-15

    This report describes the results of a collaborative project between QinetiQ Ltd and NOI (Scotland) Ltd to design and manufacture radar absorbent wind turbine blades. The main objectives were to: use predictive modelling to understand the contribution made by the blade to radar cross section (RCS) of the complete turbine; confirm that the turbine RCS could feasibility be reduced to appropriate levels through the use of radar absorbent material (RAM); and to demonstrate that introduction of stealth technology within current composite sections would allow RAM variants of the blade materials to be manufactured with minimal impact on the structure. The RCS of a turbine was predicted at frequencies at which representative air traffic control (ATC), weather and marine navigation radar systems operate. The material compositions that exist on the blades produced by NOI were studied and methods by which RAM could be introduced to each region were identified. RCS predictions for a blade having RAM over its surface were then repeated. The study showed that it was possible to modify all material regions of the NOI blades to create RAM with little or no degradation in structural properties, thus reducing detection by non-Doppler radar and ATC radars. A full practical demonstration of a stealthy turbine is recommended to allow the benefits of RCS reduction through the use of RAM to be quantified by all stakeholders.

  2. Doppler HF Radar Application for the Study of Spatial Structure of Currents in the Black Sea

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V.V. Gorbatskiy

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available The results of the surface current spatial structure observations performed by SeaSonde Doppler HF radar (operating frequency is 25 MHz in the Black Sea region adjacent to the city of Gelendzhik are represented. The observations imply a special technique consisting in successive measurements at two selected points of the coastline. Initially, the measurements are carried out in the first of two selected coastal points during two hours. Then the radar system is transferred to the second point on the coast where the procedure is repeated. At that the velocity field is assumed to remain unchanged during the total measurement period (including the time of the radar displacement from both points. The measurement results are shown in a form of a spatial map of the current velocity vectors in the research region (with 20 × 20 km dimensions. Some features of the current spatial and temporal variability in the coastal waters are revealed. Particularly, the eddy-like formations (the diameter is a few kilometers which rapidly move and collapse. Since similar eddies are detected using the contact measurement methods, complex and variable structure of the surface currents measured by a radar does not seem to be an artifact. Nevertheless, reliability of the data resulted from the radar measurements of the surface current velocity field should be verified in future by comparing it with the results of the quasi-synchronous velocity field measurements performed by stationary, drifting and towed velocity meters.

  3. Survey of Ultra-wideband Radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mokole, Eric L.; Hansen, Pete

    The development of UWB radar over the last four decades is very briefly summarized. A discussion of the meaning of UWB is followed by a short history of UWB radar developments and discussions of key supporting technologies and current UWB radars. Selected UWB radars and the associated applications are highlighted. Applications include detecting and imaging buried mines, detecting and mapping underground utilities, detecting and imaging objects obscured by foliage, through-wall detection in urban areas, short-range detection of suicide bombs, and the characterization of the impulse responses of various artificial and naturally occurring scattering objects. In particular, the Naval Research Laboratory's experimental, low-power, dual-polarized, short-pulse, ultra-high resolution radar is used to discuss applications and issues of UWB radar. Some crucial issues that are problematic to UWB radar are spectral availability, electromagnetic interference and compatibility, difficulties with waveform control/shaping, hardware limitations in the transmission chain, and the unreliability of high-power sources for sustained use above 2 GHz.

  4. Improved measurements of mean sea surface velocity in the Nordic Seas from synthetic aperture radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wergeland Hansen, Morten; Johnsen, Harald; Engen, Geir; Øie Nilsen, Jan Even

    2017-04-01

    The warm and saline surface Atlantic Water (AW) flowing into the Nordic Seas across the Greenland-Scotland ridge transports heat into the Arctic, maintaining the ice-free oceans and regulating sea-ice extent. The AW influences the region's relatively mild climate and is the northern branch of the global thermohaline overturning circulation. Heat loss in the Norwegian Sea is key for both heat transport and deep water formation. In general, the ocean currents in the Nordic Seas and the North Atlantic Ocean is a complex system of topographically steered barotropic and baroclinic currents of which the wind stress and its variability is a driver of major importance. The synthetic aperture radar (SAR) Doppler centroid shift has been demonstrated to contain geophysical information about sea surface wind, waves and current at an accuracy of 5 Hz and pixel spacing of 3.5 - 9 × 8 km2. This corresponds to a horizontal surface velocity of about 20 cm/s at 35° incidence angle. The ESA Prodex ISAR project aims to implement new and improved SAR Doppler shift processing routines to enable reprocessing of the wide swath acquisitions available from the Envisat ASAR archive (2002-2012) at higher resolution and better accuracy than previously obtained, allowing combined use with Sentinel-1 and Radarsat-2 retrievals to build timeseries of the sea surface velocity in the Nordic Seas. Estimation of the geophysical Doppler shift from new SAR Doppler centroid shift retrievals will be demonstrated, addressing key issues relating to geometric (satellite orbit and attitude) and electronic (antenna mis-pointing) contributions and corrections. Geophysical Doppler shift retrievals from one month of data in January 2010 and the inverted surface velocity in the Nordic Seas are then addressed and compared to other direct and indirect estimates of the upper ocean current, in particular those obtained in the ESA GlobCurrent project.

  5. Active laser radar (lidar) for measurement of corresponding height and reflectance images

    Science.gov (United States)

    Froehlich, Christoph; Mettenleiter, M.; Haertl, F.

    1997-08-01

    For the survey and inspection of environmental objects, a non-tactile, robust and precise imaging of height and depth is the basis sensor technology. For visual inspection,surface classification, and documentation purposes, however, additional information concerning reflectance of measured objects is necessary. High-speed acquisition of both geometric and visual information is achieved by means of an active laser radar, supporting consistent 3D height and 2D reflectance images. The laser radar is an optical-wavelength system, and is comparable to devices built by ERIM, Odetics, and Perceptron, measuring the range between sensor and target surfaces as well as the reflectance of the target surface, which corresponds to the magnitude of the back scattered laser energy. In contrast to these range sensing devices, the laser radar under consideration is designed for high speed and precise operation in both indoor and outdoor environments, emitting a minimum of near-IR laser energy. It integrates a laser range measurement system and a mechanical deflection system for 3D environmental measurements. This paper reports on design details of the laser radar for surface inspection tasks. It outlines the performance requirements and introduces the measurement principle. The hardware design, including the main modules, such as the laser head, the high frequency unit, the laser beam deflection system, and the digital signal processing unit are discussed.the signal processing unit consists of dedicated signal processors for real-time sensor data preprocessing as well as a sensor computer for high-level image analysis and feature extraction. The paper focuses on performance data of the system, including noise, drift over time, precision, and accuracy with measurements. It discuses the influences of ambient light, surface material of the target, and ambient temperature for range accuracy and range precision. Furthermore, experimental results from inspection of buildings, monuments

  6. The use of airborne laser data to calibrate satellite radar altimetry data over ice sheets

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ekholm, Simon; Bamber, J.L.; Krabill, W.B.

    2002-01-01

    Satellite radar altimetry is the most important data source for ice sheet elevation modeling but it is well established that the accuracy of such data from satellite borne radar altimeters degrade seriously with increasing surface slope and level of roughness. A significant fraction of the slope......-precision airborne laser profiling data from the so-called Arctic Ice Mapping project as a tool to determine that bias and to calibrate the satellite altimetry. This is achieved by a simple statistical analysis of the airborne laser profiles, which defines the mean amplitude of the local surface undulations...

  7. Optimization of Soil Hydraulic Model Parameters Using Synthetic Aperture Radar Data: An Integrated Multidisciplinary Approach

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pauwels, Valentijn; Balenzano, Anna; Satalino, Giuseppe

    2009-01-01

    It is widely recognized that Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data are a very valuable source of information for the modeling of the interactions between the land surface and the atmosphere. During the last couple of decades, most of the research on the use of SAR data in hydrologic applications has...... that no direct relationships between the remote-sensing observations, more specifically radar backscatter values, and the parameter values can be derived. However, land surface models can provide these relationships. The objective of this paper is to retrieve a number of soil physical model parameters through...

  8. Comparative Study on Assimilating Remote Sensing High Frequency Radar Surface Currents at an Atlantic Marine Renewable Energy Test Site

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lei Ren

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available A variety of data assimilation approaches have been applied to enhance modelling capability and accuracy using observations from different sources. The algorithms have varying degrees of complexity of implementation, and they improve model results with varying degrees of success. Very little work has been carried out on comparing the implementation of different data assimilation algorithms using High Frequency radar (HFR data into models of complex inshore waters strongly influenced by both tides and wind dynamics, such as Galway Bay. This research entailed implementing four different data assimilation algorithms: Direct Insertion (DI, Optimal Interpolation (OI, Nudging and indirect data assimilation via correcting model forcing into a three-dimensional hydrodynamic model and carrying out detailed comparisons of model performances. This work will allow researchers to directly compare four of the most common data assimilation algorithms being used in operational coastal hydrodynamics. The suitability of practical data assimilation algorithms for hindcasting and forecasting in shallow coastal waters subjected to alternate wetting and drying using data collected from radars was assessed. Results indicated that a forecasting system of surface currents based on the three-dimensional model EFDC (Environmental Fluid Dynamics Code and the HFR data using a Nudging or DI algorithm was considered the most appropriate for Galway Bay. The largest averaged Data Assimilation Skill Score (DASS over the ≥6 h forecasting period from the best model NDA attained 26% and 31% for east–west and north–south surface velocity components respectively. Because of its ease of implementation and its accuracy, this data assimilation system can provide timely and useful information for various practical coastal hindcast and forecast operations.

  9. Meteor detection on ST (MST) radars

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Avery, S.K.

    1987-01-01

    The ability to detect radar echoes from backscatter due to turbulent irregularities of the radio refractive index in the clear atmosphere has lead to an increasing number of established mesosphere - stratosphere - troposphere (MST or ST) radars. Humidity and temperature variations are responsible for the echo in the troposphere and stratosphere and turbulence acting on electron density gradients provides the echo in the mesosphere. The MST radar and its smaller version, the ST radar, are pulsed Doppler radars operating in the VHF - UHF frequency range. These echoes can be used to determine upper atmosphere winds at little extra cost to the ST radar configuration. In addition, the meteor echoes can supplement mesospheric data from an MST radar. The detection techniques required on the ST radar for delineating meteor echo returns are described

  10. CAMEX-4 TOGA RADAR V1

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The TOGA radar dataset consists of browse and radar data collected from the TOGA radar during the CAMEX-4 experiment. TOGA is a C-band linear polarized doppler radar...

  11. Radar-based rainfall estimation: Improving Z/R relations through comparison of drop size distributions, rainfall rates and radar reflectivity patterns

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neuper, Malte; Ehret, Uwe

    2014-05-01

    The relation between the measured radar reflectivity factor Z and surface rainfall intensity R - the Z/R relation - is profoundly complex, so that in general one speaks about radar-based quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) rather than exact measurement. Like in Plato's Allegory of the Cave, what we observe in the end is only the 'shadow' of the true rainfall field through a very small backscatter of an electromagnetic signal emitted by the radar, which we hope has been actually reflected by hydrometeors. The meteorological relevant and valuable Information is gained only indirectly by more or less justified assumptions. One of these assumptions concerns the drop size distribution, through which the rain intensity is finally associated with the measured radar reflectivity factor Z. The real drop size distribution is however subject to large spatial and temporal variability, and consequently so is the true Z/R relation. Better knowledge of the true spatio-temporal Z/R structure therefore has the potential to improve radar-based QPE compared to the common practice of applying a single or a few standard Z/R relations. To this end, we use observations from six laser-optic disdrometers, two vertically pointing micro rain radars, 205 rain gauges, one rawindsonde station and two C-band Doppler radars installed or operated in and near the Attert catchment (Luxembourg). The C-band radars and the rawindsonde station are operated by the Belgian and German Weather Services, the rain gauge data was partly provided by the French, Dutch, Belgian, German Weather Services and the Ministry of Agriculture of Luxembourg and the other equipment was installed as part of the interdisciplinary DFG research project CAOS (Catchment as Organized Systems). With the various data sets correlation analyzes were executed. In order to get a notion on the different appearance of the reflectivity patterns in the radar image, first of all various simple distribution indices (for example the

  12. The RADAR Project—A Service for Research Data Archival and Publication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Angelina Kraft

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the RADAR (Research Data Repository project is to set up and establish an infrastructure that facilitates research data management: the infrastructure will allow researchers to store, manage, annotate, cite, curate, search and find scientific data in a digital platform available at any time that can be used by multiple (specialized disciplines. While appropriate and innovative preservation strategies and systems are in place for the big data communities (e.g., environmental sciences, space, and climate, the stewardship for many other disciplines, often called the “long tail research domains”, is uncertain. Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG, the RADAR collaboration project develops a service oriented infrastructure for the preservation, publication and traceability of (independent research data. The key aspect of RADAR is the implementation of a two-stage business model for data preservation and publication: clients may preserve research results for up to 15 years and assign well-graded access rights, or to publish data with a DOI assignment for an unlimited period of time. Potential clients include libraries, research institutions, publishers and open platforms that desire an adaptable digital infrastructure to archive and publish data according to their institutional requirements and workflows.

  13. Modeling L-band synthetic aperture radar observations through dielectric changes in soil moisture and vegetation over shrublands

    Science.gov (United States)

    L-band airborne synthetic aperture radar observations were made over California shrublands to better understand the effects by soil and vegetation parameters on backscatter. Temporal changes in radar backscattering coefficient (s0) of up to 3 dB were highly correlated to surface soil moisture but no...

  14. Multiple-scattering in radar systems: A review

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Battaglia, Alessandro; Tanelli, Simone; Kobayashi, Satoru; Zrnic, Dusan; Hogan, Robin J.; Simmer, Clemens

    2010-01-01

    Although extensively studied within the lidar community, the multiple scattering phenomenon has always been considered a rare curiosity by radar meteorologists. Up to few years ago its appearance has only been associated with two- or three-body-scattering features (e.g. hail flares and mirror images) involving highly reflective surfaces. Recent atmospheric research aimed at better understanding of the water cycle and the role played by clouds and precipitation in affecting the Earth's climate has driven the deployment of high frequency radars in space. Examples are the TRMM 13.5 GHz, the CloudSat 94 GHz, the upcoming EarthCARE 94 GHz, and the GPM dual 13-35 GHz radars. These systems are able to detect the vertical distribution of hydrometeors and thus provide crucial feedbacks for radiation and climate studies. The shift towards higher frequencies increases the sensitivity to hydrometeors, improves the spatial resolution and reduces the size and weight of the radar systems. On the other hand, higher frequency radars are affected by stronger extinction, especially in the presence of large precipitating particles (e.g. raindrops or hail particles), which may eventually drive the signal below the minimum detection threshold. In such circumstances the interpretation of the radar equation via the single scattering approximation may be problematic. Errors will be large when the radiation emitted from the radar after interacting more than once with the medium still contributes substantially to the received power. This is the case if the transport mean-free-path becomes comparable with the instrument footprint (determined by the antenna beam-width and the platform altitude). This situation resembles to what has already been experienced in lidar observations, but with a predominance of wide- versus small-angle scattering events. At millimeter wavelengths, hydrometeors diffuse radiation rather isotropically compared to the visible or near infrared region where scattering is

  15. Radar Plan Position Indicator Scope

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Radar Plan Position Indicator Scope is the collection of weather radar imagery for the period prior to the beginning of the Next Generation Radar (NEXRAD) system...

  16. KARIN: The Ka-Band Radar Interferometer for the Proposed Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) Mission

    Science.gov (United States)

    Esteban-Fernandez, Daniel; Peral, Eva; McWatters, Dalia; Pollard, Brian; Rodriguez, Ernesto; Hughes, Richard

    2013-01-01

    Over the last two decades, several nadir profiling radar altimeters have provided our first global look at the ocean basin-scale circulation and the ocean mesoscale at wavelengths longer than 100 km. Due to sampling limitations, nadir altimetry is unable to resolve the small wavelength ocean mesoscale and sub-mesoscale that are responsible for the vertical mixing of ocean heat and gases and the dissipation of kinetic energy from large to small scales. The proposed Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission would be a partnership between NASA, CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spaciales) and the Canadian Space Agency, and would have as one of its main goals the measurement of ocean topography with kilometer-scale spatial resolution and centimeter scale accuracy. In this paper, we provide an overview of all ocean error sources that would contribute to the SWOT mission.

  17. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR-based mapping of volcanic flows: Manam Island, Papua New Guinea

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. K. Weissel

    2004-01-01

    Full Text Available We present new radar-based techniques for efficient identification of surface changes generated by lava and pyroclastic flows, and apply these to the 1996 eruption of Manam Volcano, Papua New Guinea. Polarimetric L- and P-band airborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR data, along with a C-band DEM, were acquired over the volcano on 17 November 1996 during a major eruption sequence. The L-band data are analyzed for dominant scattering mechanisms on a per pixel basis using radar target decomposition techniques. A classification method is presented, and when applied to the L-band polarimetry, it readily distinguishes bare surfaces from forest cover over Manam volcano. In particular, the classification scheme identifies a post-1992 lava flow in NE Valley of Manam Island as a mainly bare surface and the underlying 1992 flow units as mainly vegetated surfaces. The Smithsonian's Global Volcanism Network reports allow us to speculate whether the bare surface is a flow dating from October or November in the early part of the late-1996 eruption sequence. This work shows that fully polarimetric SAR is sensitive to scattering mechanism changes caused by volcanic resurfacing processes such as lava and pyroclastic flows. By extension, this technique should also prove useful in mapping debris flows, ash deposits and volcanic landslides associated with major eruptions.

  18. Operational reservoir inflow forecasting with radar altimetry: The Zambezi case study

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Michailovsky, Claire Irene B.; Bauer-Gottwein, Peter

    2014-01-01

    uncertainty. Data assimilation is widely used in operational applications to update hydrological models with in situ discharge or level measurements. In areas where timely access to in situ data is not possible, remote sensing data products can be used in assimilation schemes. While river discharge itself...... cannot be measured from space, radar altimetry can track surface water level variations at crossing locations between the satellite ground track and the river system called virtual stations (VS). Use of radar altimetry versus traditional monitoring in operational settings is complicated by the low...

  19. Ground penetrating radar for determining volumetric soil water content ; results of comparative measurements at two test sites

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Overmeeren, R.A. van; Sariowan, S.V.; Gehrels, J.C.

    1997-01-01

    Ground penetrating radar (GPR) can provide information on the soil water content of the unsaturated zone in sandy deposits via measurements from the surface, and so avoids drilling. Proof of this was found from measurements of radar wave velocities carried out ten times over 13 months at two test

  20. Detecting Weather Radar Clutter by Information Fusion With Satellite Images and Numerical Weather Prediction Model Output

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bøvith, Thomas; Nielsen, Allan Aasbjerg; Hansen, Lars Kai

    2006-01-01

    A method for detecting clutter in weather radar images by information fusion is presented. Radar data, satellite images, and output from a numerical weather prediction model are combined and the radar echoes are classified using supervised classification. The presented method uses indirect...... information on precipitation in the atmosphere from Meteosat-8 multispectral images and near-surface temperature estimates from the DMI-HIRLAM-S05 numerical weather prediction model. Alternatively, an operational nowcasting product called 'Precipitating Clouds' based on Meteosat-8 input is used. A scale...

  1. Modified Hitschfeld-Bordan Equations for Attenuation-Corrected Radar Rain Reflectivity: Application to Nonuniform Beamfilling at Off-Nadir Incidence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meneghini, Robert; Liao, Liang

    2013-01-01

    As shown by Takahashi et al., multiple path attenuation estimates over the field of view of an airborne or spaceborne weather radar are feasible for off-nadir incidence angles. This follows from the fact that the surface reference technique, which provides path attenuation estimates, can be applied to each radar range gate that intersects the surface. This study builds on this result by showing that three of the modified Hitschfeld-Bordan estimates for the attenuation-corrected radar reflectivity factor can be generalized to the case where multiple path attenuation estimates are available, thereby providing a correction to the effects of nonuniform beamfilling. A simple simulation is presented showing some strengths and weaknesses of the approach.

  2. The study of fresh-water lake ice using multiplexed imaging radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leonard, Bryan M.; Larson, R.W.

    1975-01-01

    The study of ice in the upper Great Lakes, both from the operational and the scientific points of view, is receiving continued attention. Quantitative and qualitative field work is being conducted to provide the needed background for accurate interpretation of remotely sensed data. The data under discussion in this paper were obtained by a side-looking multiplexed airborne radar (SLAR) supplemented with ground-truth data.Because of its ability to penetrate adverse weather, radar is an especially important instrument for monitoring ice in the upper Great Lakes. It has previously been shown that imaging radars can provide maps of ice cover in these areas. However, questions concerning both the nature of the surfaces reflecting radar energy and the interpretation of the radar imagery continually arise.Our analysis of ice in Whitefish Bay (Lake Superior) indicates that the combination of the ice/water interlace and the ice/air interface is the major contributor to the radar backscatter as seen on the imagery At these frequencies the ice has a very low relative dielectric permittivity (types studied include newly formed black ice, pancake ice, and frozen and consolidated pack and brash ice.Although ice thickness cannot be measured directly from the received signals, it is suspected that by combining the information pertaining to radar backscatter with data on the meteorological and sea-state history of the area, together with some basic ground truth, better estimates of the ice thickness may be provided. In addition, certain ice features (e.g. ridges, ice-foot formation, areas of brash ice) may be identified with reasonable confidence. There is a continued need for additional ground work to verify the validity of imaging radars for these types of interpretations.

  3. The use of radar for bathymetry assessment

    OpenAIRE

    Aardoom, J.H.; Greidanus, H.S.F.

    1998-01-01

    The bottom topography in shallow seas can be observed by air- and spaceborne imaging radar. Bathymetric information derived from radar data is limited in accuracy, but radar has a good spatial coverage. The accuracy can be increased by assimilating the radar imagery into existing or insitu gathered bathymetric data. The paper reviews the concepts of bathymetry assessment by radar, the radar imaging mechanism, and the possibilities and limitations of the use of radar data in rapid assessment.

  4. Prediction of buried mine-like target radar signatures using wideband electromagnetic modeling

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Warrick, A.L.; Azevedo, S.G.; Mast, J.E.

    1998-04-06

    Current ground penetrating radars (GPR) have been tested for land mine detection, but they have generally been costly and have poor performance. Comprehensive modeling and experimentation must be done to predict the electromagnetic (EM) signatures of mines to access the effect of clutter on the EM signature of the mine, and to understand the merit and limitations of using radar for various mine detection scenarios. This modeling can provide a basis for advanced radar design and detection techniques leading to superior performance. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has developed a radar technology that when combined with comprehensive modeling and detection methodologies could be the basis of an advanced mine detection system. Micropower Impulse Radar (MIR) technology exhibits a combination of properties, including wideband operation, extremely low power consumption, extremely small size and low cost, array configurability, and noise encoded pulse generation. LLNL is in the process of developing an optimal processing algorithm to use with the MIR sensor. In this paper, we use classical numerical models to obtain the signature of mine-like targets and examine the effect of surface roughness on the reconstructed signals. These results are then qualitatively compared to experimental data.

  5. Dynamic neural network modeling of HF radar current maps for forecasting oil spill trajectories

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tissot, P.; Perez, J.; Kelly, F.J.; Bonner, J.; Michaud, P.

    2001-01-01

    This paper examined the concept of dynamic neural network (NN) modeling for short-term forecasts of coastal high-frequency (HF) radar current maps offshore of Galveston Texas. HF radar technology is emerging as a viable and affordable way to measure surface currents in real time and the number of users applying the technology is increasing. A 25 megahertz, two site, Seasonde HF radar system was used to map ocean and bay surface currents along the coast of Texas where wind and river discharge create complex and rapidly changing current patters that override the weaker tidal flow component. The HF radar system is particularly useful in this type of setting because its mobility makes it a good marine spill response tool that could provide hourly current maps. This capability helps improve deployment of response resources. In addition, the NN model recently developed by the Conrad Blucher Institute can be used to forecast water levels during storm events. Forecasted currents are based on time series of current vectors from HF radar plus wind speed, wind direction, and water levels, as well as tidal forecasts. The dynamic NN model was tested to evaluate its performance and the results were compared with a baseline model which assumes the currents do not change from the time of the forecast up to the forecasted time. The NN model showed improvements over the baseline model for forecasting time equal or greater than 3 hours, but the difference was relatively small. The test demonstrated the ability of the dynamic NN model to link meteorological forcing functions with HF radar current maps. Development of the dynamic NN modeling is still ongoing. 18 refs., 1 tab., 5 figs

  6. Properties of Extreme Precipitation and Their Uncertainties in 3-year GPM Precipitation Radar Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, N.; Liu, C.

    2017-12-01

    Extreme high precipitation rates are often related to flash floods and have devastating impacts on human society and the environments. To better understand these rare events, 3-year Precipitation Features (PFs) are defined by grouping the contiguous areas with nonzero near-surface precipitation derived using Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Ku band Precipitation Radar (KuPR). The properties of PFs with extreme precipitation rates greater than 20, 50, 100 mm/hr, such as the geographical distribution, volumetric precipitation contribution, seasonal and diurnal variations, are examined. In addition to the large seasonal and regional variations, the rare extreme precipitation rates often have a larger contribution to the local total precipitation. Extreme precipitation rates occur more often over land than over ocean. The challenges in the retrieval of extreme precipitation might be from the attenuation correction and large uncertainties in the Z-R relationships from near-surface radar reflectivity to precipitation rates. These potential uncertainties are examined by using collocated ground based radar reflectivity and precipitation retrievals.

  7. Anomalously-dense firn in an ice-shelf channel revealed by wide-angle radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Drews, R.; Brown, J.; Matsuoka, K.; Witrant, E.; Philippe, M.; Hubbard, B.; Pattyn, F.

    2015-10-01

    The thickness of ice shelves, a basic parameter for mass balance estimates, is typically inferred using hydrostatic equilibrium for which knowledge of the depth-averaged density is essential. The densification from snow to ice depends on a number of local factors (e.g. temperature and surface mass balance) causing spatial and temporal variations in density-depth profiles. However, direct measurements of firn density are sparse, requiring substantial logistical effort. Here, we infer density from radio-wave propagation speed using ground-based wide-angle radar datasets (10 MHz) collected at five sites on Roi Baudouin Ice Shelf (RBIS), Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. Using a novel algorithm including traveltime inversion and raytracing with a prescribed shape of the depth-density relationship, we show that the depth to internal reflectors, the local ice thickness and depth-averaged densities can reliably be reconstructed. For the particular case of an ice-shelf channel, where ice thickness and surface slope change substantially over a few kilometers, the radar data suggests that firn inside the channel is about 5 % denser than outside the channel. Although this density difference is at the detection limit of the radar, it is consistent with a similar density anomaly reconstructed from optical televiewing, which reveals 10 % denser firn inside compared to outside the channel. The denser firn in the ice-shelf channel should be accounted for when using the hydrostatic ice thickness for determining basal melt rates. The radar method presented here is robust and can easily be adapted to different radar frequencies and data-acquisition geometries.

  8. Space Radar Image of West Texas - SAR scan

    Science.gov (United States)

    1999-01-01

    This radar image of the Midland/Odessa region of West Texas, demonstrates an experimental technique, called ScanSAR, that allows scientists to rapidly image large areas of the Earth's surface. The large image covers an area 245 kilometers by 225 kilometers (152 miles by 139 miles). It was obtained by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) flying aboard the space shuttle Endeavour on October 5, 1994. The smaller inset image is a standard SIR-C image showing a portion of the same area, 100 kilometers by 57 kilometers (62 miles by 35 miles) and was taken during the first flight of SIR-C on April 14, 1994. The bright spots on the right side of the image are the cities of Odessa (left) and Midland (right), Texas. The Pecos River runs from the top center to the bottom center of the image. Along the left side of the image are, from top to bottom, parts of the Guadalupe, Davis and Santiago Mountains. North is toward the upper right. Unlike conventional radar imaging, in which a radar continuously illuminates a single ground swath as the space shuttle passes over the terrain, a Scansar radar illuminates several adjacent ground swaths almost simultaneously, by 'scanning' the radar beam across a large area in a rapid sequence. The adjacent swaths, typically about 50 km (31 miles) wide, are then merged during ground processing to produce a single large scene. Illumination for this L-band scene is from the top of the image. The beams were scanned from the top of the scene to the bottom, as the shuttle flew from left to right. This scene was acquired in about 30 seconds. A normal SIR-C image is acquired in about 13 seconds. The ScanSAR mode will likely be used on future radar sensors to construct regional and possibly global radar images and topographic maps. The ScanSAR processor is being designed for 1996 implementation at NASA's Alaska SAR Facility, located at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and will produce digital images from the

  9. Morphologie radar de fonds marins Radar Morphology of Some Sea Floors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wadsworth A.

    2006-11-01

    Full Text Available Les radars latéraux sont des instruments de télédétection, fournissant des images de la surface terrestre survolée par pratiquement tout temps, c'est-à-dire de jour ou de nuit, par temps clair ou à travers de la brume, du brouillard, des nuages ou de la pluie. Dans le cadre de l'utilisation de ces instruments pour l'acquisition de données en mer, afin de quantifier les vagues ou la houle, des visualisations annexes, involontaires à l'origine, ont été réalisées. C'est le cas, par exemple, de certains fonds marins, que l'on peut voirlorsque quelques éléments opérationnels sont bien choisis. De plus, une certaine idée de leur morphologie peut être atteinte. Divers exemples sont présentés dans le cas de faibles fonds. Une approche des causes de cette visualisation est proposée, les grandes limites en sont fixées. Side-looking radars are remote-sensing instruments providing images of the ground surface overflown in almost all weather, i. e. day or night, with clear weather or through mist, fog, clouds or rain. These equipments, previously used to quantify sea waves and swell produced, in sonie cases, a noise which was later understood as being a signal, an expression of sea bottom features. This is the case, for example, for sonie sea floors which can be seenwhen a few operational elements have been carefully chosen. Likewise, some idea of the morphology of sea floors can be obtained. This article gives different examples for shallow depths. An approach to the causes of this visualization is proposed, and the major limitations are determined.

  10. Flood Monitoring using X-band Dual-polarization Radar Network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chandrasekar, V.; Wang, Y.; Maki, M.; Nakane, K.

    2009-09-01

    A dense weather radar network is an emerging concept advanced by the Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA). Using multiple radars observing over a common will create different data outcomes depending on the characteristics of the radar units employed and the network topology. To define this a general framework is developed to describe the radar network space, and formulations are obtained that can be used for weather radar network characterization. Current weather radar surveillance networks are based upon conventional sensing paradigm of widely-separated, standalone sensing systems using long range radars that operate at wavelengths in 5-10 cm range. Such configuration has limited capability to observe close to the surface of the earth because of the earth's curvature but also has poorer resolution at far ranges. The dense network radar system, observes and measures weather phenomenon such as rainfall and severe weather close to the ground at higher spatial and temporal resolution compared to the current paradigm. In addition the dense network paradigm also is easily adaptable to complex terrain. Flooding is one of the most common natural hazards in the world. Especially, excessive development decreases the response time of urban watersheds and complex terrain to rainfall and increases the chance of localized flooding events over a small spatial domain. Successful monitoring of urban floods requires high spatiotemporal resolution, accurate precipitation estimation because of the rapid flood response as well as the complex hydrologic and hydraulic characteristics in an urban environment. This paper reviews various aspects in radar rainfall mapping in urban coverage using dense X-band dual-polarization radar networks. By reducing the maximum range and operating at X-band, one can ensure good azimuthal resolution with a small-size antenna and keep the radar beam closer to the ground. The networked topology helps to achieve satisfactory

  11. Radar observations of asteroids

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ostro, S.J.

    1989-01-01

    This paper describes echoes from 33 main-belt asteroids (MBAs) and 19 near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) have provided a wealth of new information about these objects such as sizes, shapes, spin vectors, and such surface characteristics as decimeter-scale morphology, topographic relief, regolith porosity and metal concentrations. On average, small NEAs are much rougher at decimeter scales than MBAs, comets or terrestrial planets. Some of the largest MBAs (e.g., 1 Ceres and 2 Pallas ) are smoother than the moon at decimeter scales but much rougher than the Moon at some much larger scale. There is at least a five-fold variation in the radar albedos of MBAs, implying substantial variations in the surface porosities or metal concentrations of these objects. The highest MBA albedo estimate, for 16 Psyche, is consistent with a metal concentration near unity and lunar porosities

  12. Borehole radar survey at the granite quarry mine, Pocheon, Kyounggi province

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kim, Jung Ho; Cho, Seong Jun; Yi, Myeong Jong; Chung, Seung Hwan; Lee, Hee Il; Shin, In Chul [Korea Institute of Geology Mining and Materials, Taejon (Korea, Republic of)

    1997-12-01

    Borehole radar survey in combination with the reflection and tomography methods was conducted at the Donga granite quarry mine of Pocheon area in Kyounggi province. The purpose of radar survey in quarry mine is to delineate the inhomogeneities including fractures and to estimate the freshness of rock. 20 MHz was adopted as the central frequency for the radar reflection and tomography surveys for the longer distance of penetration. The reflection survey using the direction finding antenna was also conducted to get the information on the spatial orientation of reflectors. Besides the various kinds of radar borehole survey, two surface geophysical methods, dipole-dipole resistivity survey and ground penetrating radar, were also applied to delineate the hidden parts of geological structures which was confirmed by geological mapping. The reflection data processing package, RADPRO ver. 2.2, developed continuously through in this study, was used to process the borehole reflection radar data. The new programs to process radar reflection data using directional antenna were devised and used to calculate and image the orientation of reflectors. The major dip angle of fractured zones were determined from the radar reflection images. With the aid of direction finding antenna and the newly developed algorithm to image the orientation of reflectors, it was possible to get the three dimensional attitudes of reflectors. Detailed interpretation results of the surveyed area are included in this report. Through the interpretation of borehole reflection data using dipole and direction finding antenna, we could determine the orientation of the major fractured zone, the boundary of two mining areas. Many of hidden inhomogeneities were found by borehole radar methods. By the image of direction finding antenna, it was confirmed that nearly all of them were located at the outside of the planned mining area or were situated very deeply. Therefore, the surveyed area consists of very fresh and

  13. The accuracy of satellite radar altimeter data over the Greenland ice sheet determined from airborne laser data

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bamber, J.L.; Ekholm, Simon; Krabill, W.

    1998-01-01

    with airborne laser altimeter data an absolute accuracy typically in the range 2-10 cm +/- 10 cm. Comparison of differences between the radar and laser derived elevations, showed a correlation with surface slope. The difference between the two data sets ranged from 84 cm +/- 79 cm for slopes below 0.1 degrees......The 336 days of the geodetic phase of ERS-1 provides dense coverage, by satellite radar altimetry, of the whole of the Greenland ice sheet. These data have been used to produce a digital elevation model of the ice sheet. The errors present in the altimeter data were investigated via a comparison......, to 10.3 m +/- 8.4 m for a slope of 0.7 degrees ( the half power beam-width of the ERS-1 radar altimeter). An explanation for the behaviour of the difference as a function of surface slope is given in terms of the pattern of surface roughness on the ice sheet....

  14. An operational weather radar-based Quantitative Precipitation Estimation and its application in catchment water resources modeling

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    He, Xin; Vejen, Flemming; Stisen, Simon

    2011-01-01

    of precipitation compared with rain-gauge-based methods, thus providing the basis for better water resources assessments. The radar QPE algorithm called ARNE is a distance-dependent areal estimation method that merges radar data with ground surface observations. The method was applied to the Skjern River catchment...... in western Denmark where alternative precipitation estimates were also used as input to an integrated hydrologic model. The hydrologic responses from the model were analyzed by comparing radar- and ground-based precipitation input scenarios. Results showed that radar QPE products are able to generate...... reliable simulations of stream flow and water balance. The potential of using radar-based precipitation was found to be especially high at a smaller scale, where the impact of spatial resolution was evident from the stream discharge results. Also, groundwater recharge was shown to be sensitive...

  15. Model track studies on fouled ballast using ground penetrating radar and multichannel analysis of surface wave

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anbazhagan, P.; Lijun, Su; Buddhima, Indraratna; Cholachat, Rujikiatkamjorn

    2011-08-01

    Ballast fouling is created by the breakdown of aggregates or outside contamination by coal dust from coal trains, or from soil intrusion beneath rail track. Due to ballast fouling, the conditions of rail track can be deteriorated considerably depending on the type of fouling material and the degree of fouling. So far there is no comprehensive guideline available to identify the critical degree of fouling for different types of fouling materials. This paper presents the identification of degree of fouling and types of fouling using non-destructive testing, namely seismic surface-wave and ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey. To understand this, a model rail track with different degree of fouling has been constructed in Civil engineering laboratory, University of Wollongong, Australia. Shear wave velocity obtained from seismic survey has been employed to identify the degree of fouling and types of fouling material. It is found that shear wave velocity of fouled ballast increases initially, reaches optimum fouling point (OFP), and decreases when the fouling increases. The degree of fouling corresponding after which the shear wave velocity of fouled ballast will be smaller than that of clean ballast is called the critical fouling point (CFP). Ground penetrating radar with four different ground coupled antennas (500 MHz, 800 MHz, 1.6 GHz and 2.3 GHz) was also used to identify the ballast fouling condition. It is found that the 800 MHz ground coupled antenna gives a better signal in assessing the ballast fouling condition. Seismic survey is relatively slow when compared to GPR survey however it gives quantifiable results. In contrast, GPR survey is faster and better in estimating the depth of fouling.

  16. Three-dimensional ground penetrating radar imaging using multi-frequency diffraction tomography

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mast, J.E.; Johansson, E.M. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)

    1994-11-15

    In this talk we present results from a three-dimensional image reconstruction algorithm for impulse radar operating in monostatic pule-echo mode. The application of interest to us is the nondestructive evaluation of civil structures such as bridge decks. We use a multi-frequency diffraction tomography imaging technique in which coherent backward propagations of the received reflected wavefield form a spatial image of the scattering interfaces within the region of interest. This imaging technique provides high-resolution range and azimuthal visualization of the subsurface region. We incorporate the ability to image in planarly layered conductive media and apply the algorithm to experimental data from an offset radar system in which the radar antenna is not directly coupled to the surface of the region. We present a rendering in three-dimensions of the resulting image data which provides high-detail visualization.

  17. Evaluation of a radar-based proximity warning system for off-highway dump trucks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruff, Todd

    2006-01-01

    A radar-based proximity warning system was evaluated by researchers at the Spokane Research Laboratory of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to determine if the system would be effective in detecting objects in the blind spots of an off-highway dump truck. An average of five fatalities occur each year in surface mines as a result of an equipment operator not being aware of a smaller vehicle, person or change in terrain near the equipment. Sensor technology that can detect such obstacles and that also is designed for surface mining applications is rare. Researchers worked closely with the radar system manufacturer to test and modify the system on large, off-highway dump trucks at a surface mine over a period of 2 years. The final system was thoroughly evaluated by recording video images from a camera on the rear of the truck and by recording all alarms from the rear-mounted radar. Data show that the system reliably detected small vehicles, berms, people and other equipment. However, alarms from objects that posed no immediate danger were common, supporting the assertion that sensor-based systems for proximity warning should be used in combination with other devices, such as cameras, that would allow the operator to check the source of any alarm.

  18. Air and spaceborne radar systems an introduction

    CERN Document Server

    Lacomme, Philippe; Hardange, Jean-Philippe; Normant, Eric

    2001-01-01

    A practical tool on radar systems that will be of major help to technicians, student engineers and engineers working in industry and in radar research and development. The many users of radar as well as systems engineers and designers will also find it highly useful. Also of interest to pilots and flight engineers and military command personnel and military contractors. """"This introduction to the field of radar is intended for actual users of radar. It focuses on the history, main principles, functions, modes, properties and specific nature of modern airborne radar. The book examines radar's

  19. Human walking estimation with radar

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dorp, Ph. van; Groen, F.C.A.

    2003-01-01

    Radar can be used to observe humans that are obscured by objects such as walls. These humans cannot be visually observed. The radar measurements are used to animate an obscured human in virtual reality. This requires detailed information about the motion. The radar measurements give detailed

  20. Monsoon Convection during the South China Sea Monsoon Experiment Observed from Shipboard Radar and the TRMM Satellite

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rickenbach, Tom; Cifelli, Rob; Halverson, Jeff; Kucera, Paul; Atkinson, Lester; Fisher, Brad; Gerlach, John; Harris, Kathy; Kaufman, Cristina; Liu, Ching-Hwang; hide

    1999-01-01

    A main goal of the recent South China Sea Monsoon Experiment (SCSMEX) was to study convective processes associated with the onset of the Southeast Asian summer monsoon. The NASA TOGA C-band scanning radar was deployed on the Chinese research vessel Shi Yan #3 for two 20 day cruises, collecting dual-Doppler measurements in conjunction with the BMRC C-Pol dual-polarimetric radar on Dongsha Island. Soundings and surface meteorological data were also collected with an NCAR Integrated Sounding System (ISS). This experiment was the first major tropical field campaign following the launch of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite. These observations of tropical oceanic convection provided an opportunity to make comparisons between surface radar measurements and the Precipitation Radar (PR) aboard the TRMM satellite in an oceanic environment. Nearly continuous radar operations were conducted during two Intensive Observing Periods (IOPS) straddling the onset of the monsoon (5-25 May 1998 and 5-25 June 1998). Mesoscale lines of convection with widespread regions of both trailing and forward stratiform precipitation were observed during the active monsoon periods in a southwesterly flow regime. Several examples of mesoscale convection will be shown from ship-based and spacebome radar reflectivity data during times of TRMM satellite overpasses. Further examples of pre-monsoon convection, characterized by isolated cumulonimbus and shallow, precipitating congestus clouds, will be discussed. A strong waterspout was observed very near the ship from an isolated cell in the pre-monsoon period, and was well documented with photography, radar, sounding, and sounding data.

  1. FMWC Radar for Breath Detection

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Suhr, Lau Frejstrup; Tafur Monroy, Idelfonso; Vegas Olmos, Juan José

    We report on the experimental demonstration of an FMCW radar operating in the 25.7 - 26.6 GHz range with a repetition rate of 500 sweeps per second. The radar is able to track the breathing rate of an adult human from a distance of 1 meter. The experiments have utilized a 50 second recording window...... to accurately track the breathing rate. The radar utilizes a saw tooth modulation format and a low latency receiver. A breath tracking radar is useful both in medical scenarios, diagnosing disorders such as sleep apnea, and for home use where the user can monitor its health. Breathing is a central part of every...... radar chip which, through the use of a simple modulation scheme, is able to measure the breathing rate of an adult human from a distance. A high frequency output makes sure that the radar cannot penetrate solid obstacles which is a wanted feature in private homes where people therefore cannot measure...

  2. Radar meteor rates and solar activity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Prikryl, P.

    1983-01-01

    The short-term variation of diurnal radar meteor rates with solar activity represented by solar microwave flux Fsub(10.7), and sunspots relative number Rsub(z), is investigated. Applying the superposed-epoch analysis to the observational material of radar meteor rates from Christchurch (1960-61 and 1963-65), a decrease in the recorded radar rates is found during days of enhanced solar activity. No effect of geomagnetic activity similar to the one reported for the Swedish and Canadian radar meteor data was found by the author in the Christchurch data. A possible explanation of the absence of the geomagnetic effect on radar meteor rates from New Zealand due to a lower echo ceiling height of the Christchurch radar is suggested. The variation of the atmospheric parameters as a possible cause of the observed variation in radar meteor rates is also discussed. (author)

  3. Radar cross section

    CERN Document Server

    Knott, Gene; Tuley, Michael

    2004-01-01

    This is the second edition of the first and foremost book on this subject for self-study, training, and course work. Radar cross section (RCS) is a comparison of two radar signal strengths. One is the strength of the radar beam sweeping over a target, the other is the strength of the reflected echo sensed by the receiver. This book shows how the RCS ?gauge? can be predicted for theoretical objects and how it can be measured for real targets. Predicting RCS is not easy, even for simple objects like spheres or cylinders, but this book explains the two ?exact? forms of theory so well that even a

  4. Classification and correction of the radar bright band with polarimetric radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hall, Will; Rico-Ramirez, Miguel; Kramer, Stefan

    2015-04-01

    The annular region of enhanced radar reflectivity, known as the Bright Band (BB), occurs when the radar beam intersects a layer of melting hydrometeors. Radar reflectivity is related to rainfall through a power law equation and so this enhanced region can lead to overestimations of rainfall by a factor of up to 5, so it is important to correct for this. The BB region can be identified by using several techniques including hydrometeor classification and freezing level forecasts from mesoscale meteorological models. Advances in dual-polarisation radar measurements and continued research in the field has led to increased accuracy in the ability to identify the melting snow region. A method proposed by Kitchen et al (1994), a form of which is currently used operationally in the UK, utilises idealised Vertical Profiles of Reflectivity (VPR) to correct for the BB enhancement. A simpler and more computationally efficient method involves the formation of an average VPR from multiple elevations for correction that can still cause a significant decrease in error (Vignal 2000). The purpose of this research is to evaluate a method that relies only on analysis of measurements from an operational C-band polarimetric radar without the need for computationally expensive models. Initial results show that LDR is a strong classifier of melting snow with a high Critical Success Index of 97% when compared to the other variables. An algorithm based on idealised VPRs resulted in the largest decrease in error when BB corrected scans are compared to rain gauges and to lower level scans with a reduction in RMSE of 61% for rain-rate measurements. References Kitchen, M., R. Brown, and A. G. Davies, 1994: Real-time correction of weather radar data for the effects of bright band, range and orographic growth in widespread precipitation. Q.J.R. Meteorol. Soc., 120, 1231-1254. Vignal, B. et al, 2000: Three methods to determine profiles of reflectivity from volumetric radar data to correct

  5. On the feasibility of space-based radar ice sounding of the Antarctic ice sheet at P-band

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dall, Jørgen; Kusk, Anders; Corr, Hugh

    . In this study the feasibility of space-based radar ice sounding is assessed. A two-step approach is applied: (1) Key ice sheet parameters are estimated from the airborne POLARIS data acquired in Antarctica. (2) The performance of potential space-based ice sounding radars is simulated based on the estimated ice...... data analysis estimating the scattering patterns via the Doppler spectra of the POLARIS data. The scattering patterns of the ice surfaces are relevant because the geometry of a space-based radar increases the risk that off-nadir surface clutter masks the nadir depth-signal of interest. Currently...... the ice sheet model is being established and validated. At the symposium measured and simulated satellite waveforms will be compared, and the feasibility of space-based ice sounding will be addressed....

  6. Laser radar cross-section estimation from high-resolution image data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Osche, G R; Seeber, K N; Lok, Y F; Young, D S

    1992-05-10

    A methodology for the estimation of ladar cross sections from high-resolution image data of geometrically complex targets is presented. Coherent CO(2) laser radar was used to generate high-resolution amplitude imagery of a UC-8 Buffalo test aircraft at a range of 1.3 km at nine different aspect angles. The average target ladar cross section was synthesized from these data and calculated to be sigma(T) = 15.4 dBsm, which is similar to the expected microwave radar cross sections. The aspect angle dependence of the cross section shows pronounced peaks at nose on and broadside, which are also in agreement with radar results. Strong variations in both the mean amplitude and the statistical distributions of amplitude with the aspect angle have also been observed. The relative mix of diffuse and specular returns causes significant deviations from a simple Lambertian or Swerling II target, especially at broadside where large normal surfaces are present.

  7. Bubbles in Titan’s Seas: Nucleation, Growth, and RADAR Signature

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cordier, Daniel; Liger-Belair, Gérard

    2018-05-01

    In the polar regions of Titan, the main satellite of Saturn, hydrocarbon seas have been discovered by the Cassini–Huygens mission. RADAR observations have revealed surprising and transient bright areas over the Ligeia Mare surface. As suggested by recent research, bubbles could explain these strange features. However, the nucleation and growth of such bubbles, together with their RADAR reflectivity, have never been investigated. All of these aspects are critical to an actual observation. We have thus applied the classical nucleation theory to our context, and we developed a specific radiative transfer model that is appropriate for bubble streams in cryogenic liquids. According to our results, the sea bed appears to be the most plausible place for the generation of bubbles, leading to a signal comparable to observations. This conclusion is supported by thermodynamic arguments and by RADAR properties of a bubbly column. The latter are also valid in the case of bubble plumes, due to gas leaking from the sea floor.

  8. The monocular visual imaging technology model applied in the airport surface surveillance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qin, Zhe; Wang, Jian; Huang, Chao

    2013-08-01

    At present, the civil aviation airports use the surface surveillance radar monitoring and positioning systems to monitor the aircrafts, vehicles and the other moving objects. Surface surveillance radars can cover most of the airport scenes, but because of the terminals, covered bridges and other buildings geometry, surface surveillance radar systems inevitably have some small segment blind spots. This paper presents a monocular vision imaging technology model for airport surface surveillance, achieving the perception of scenes of moving objects such as aircrafts, vehicles and personnel location. This new model provides an important complement for airport surface surveillance, which is different from the traditional surface surveillance radar techniques. Such technique not only provides clear objects activities screen for the ATC, but also provides image recognition and positioning of moving targets in this area. Thereby it can improve the work efficiency of the airport operations and avoid the conflict between the aircrafts and vehicles. This paper first introduces the monocular visual imaging technology model applied in the airport surface surveillance and then the monocular vision measurement accuracy analysis of the model. The monocular visual imaging technology model is simple, low cost, and highly efficient. It is an advanced monitoring technique which can make up blind spot area of the surface surveillance radar monitoring and positioning systems.

  9. Planetary Radar Imaging with the Deep-Space Network's 34 Meter Uplink Array

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vilnrotter, Victor; Tsao, P.; Lee, D.; Cornish, T.; Jao, J.; Slade, M.

    2011-01-01

    A coherent Uplink Array consisting of two or three 34-meter antennas of NASA's Deep Space Network has been developed for the primary purpose of increasing EIRP at the spacecraft. Greater EIRP ensures greater reach, higher uplink data rates for command and configuration control, as well as improved search and recovery capabilities during spacecraft emergencies. It has been conjectured that Doppler-delay radar imaging of lunar targets can be extended to planetary imaging, where the long baseline of the uplink array can provide greater resolution than a single antenna, as well as potentially higher EIRP. However, due to the well known R4 loss in radar links, imaging of distant planets is a very challenging endeavor, requiring accurate phasing of the Uplink Array antennas, cryogenically cooled low-noise receiver amplifiers, and sophisticated processing of the received data to extract the weak echoes characteristic of planetary radar. This article describes experiments currently under way to image the planets Mercury and Venus, highlights improvements in equipment and techniques, and presents planetary images obtained to date with two 34 meter antennas configured as a coherently phased Uplink Array.

  10. Monitoring Strategies of Earth Dams by Ground-Based Radar Interferometry: How to Extract Useful Information for Seismic Risk Assessment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Di Pasquale, Andrea; Nico, Giovanni; Pitullo, Alfredo; Prezioso, Giuseppina

    2018-01-16

    The aim of this paper is to describe how ground-based radar interferometry can provide displacement measurements of earth dam surfaces and of vibration frequencies of its main concrete infrastructures. In many cases, dams were built many decades ago and, at that time, were not equipped with in situ sensors embedded in the structure when they were built. Earth dams have scattering properties similar to landslides for which the Ground-Based Synthetic Aperture Radar (GBSAR) technique has been so far extensively applied to study ground displacements. In this work, SAR and Real Aperture Radar (RAR) configurations are used for the measurement of earth dam surface displacements and vibration frequencies of concrete structures, respectively. A methodology for the acquisition of SAR data and the rendering of results is described. The geometrical correction factor, needed to transform the Line-of-Sight (LoS) displacement measurements of GBSAR into an estimate of the horizontal displacement vector of the dam surface, is derived. Furthermore, a methodology for the acquisition of RAR data and the representation of displacement temporal profiles and vibration frequency spectra of dam concrete structures is presented. For this study a Ku-band ground-based radar, equipped with horn antennas having different radiation patterns, has been used. Four case studies, using different radar acquisition strategies specifically developed for the monitoring of earth dams, are examined. The results of this work show the information that a Ku-band ground-based radar can provide to structural engineers for a non-destructive seismic assessment of earth dams.

  11. Assessing the potential for measuring Europa's tidal Love number h2 using radar sounder and topographic imager data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Steinbrügge, G.; Schroeder, D. M.; Haynes, M. S.; Hussmann, H.; Grima, C.; Blankenship, D. D.

    2018-01-01

    The tidal Love number h2 is a key geophysical measurement for the characterization of Europa's interior, especially of its outer ice shell if a subsurface ocean is present. We performed numerical simulations to assess the potential for estimating h2 using altimetric measurements with a combination of radar sounding and stereo imaging data. The measurement principle exploits both delay and Doppler information in the radar surface return in combination with topography from a digital terrain model (DTM). The resulting radar range measurements at cross-over locations can be used in combination with radio science Doppler data for an improved trajectory solution and for estimating the h2 Love number. Our simulation results suggest that the absolute accuracy of h2 from the joint analysis of REASON (Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface) surface return and EIS (Europa Imaging System) DTM data will be in the range of 0.04-0.17 assuming full radio link coverage. The error is controlled by the SNR budget and DTM quality, both dependent on the surface properties of Europa. We estimate that this would unambiguously confirm (or reject) the global ocean hypothesis and, in combination with a nominal radio-science based measurement of the tidal Love number k2, constrain the thickness of Europa's outer ice shell to up to ±15 km.

  12. Radar network communication through sensing of frequency hopping

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dowla, Farid; Nekoogar, Faranak

    2013-05-28

    In one embodiment, a radar communication system includes a plurality of radars having a communication range and being capable of operating at a sensing frequency and a reporting frequency, wherein the reporting frequency is different than the sensing frequency, each radar is adapted for operating at the sensing frequency until an event is detected, each radar in the plurality of radars has an identification/location frequency for reporting information different from the sensing frequency, a first radar of the radars which senses the event sends a reporting frequency corresponding to its identification/location frequency when the event is detected, and all other radars in the plurality of radars switch their reporting frequencies to match the reporting frequency of the first radar upon detecting the reporting frequency switch of a radar within the communication range. In another embodiment, a method is presented for communicating information in a radar system.

  13. Sensor management in RADAR/IRST track fusion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hu, Shi-qiang; Jing, Zhong-liang

    2004-07-01

    In this paper, a novel radar management strategy technique suitable for RADAR/IRST track fusion, which is based on Fisher Information Matrix (FIM) and fuzzy stochastic decision approach, is put forward. Firstly, optimal radar measurements' scheduling is obtained by the method of maximizing determinant of the Fisher information matrix of radar and IRST measurements, which is managed by the expert system. Then, suggested a "pseudo sensor" to predict the possible target position using the polynomial method based on the radar and IRST measurements, using "pseudo sensor" model to estimate the target position even if the radar is turned off. At last, based on the tracking performance and the state of target maneuver, fuzzy stochastic decision is used to adjust the optimal radar scheduling and retrieve the module parameter of "pseudo sensor". The experiment result indicates that the algorithm can not only limit Radar activity effectively but also keep the tracking accuracy of active/passive system well. And this algorithm eliminates the drawback of traditional Radar management methods that the Radar activity is fixed and not easy to control and protect.

  14. Optimal Power Allocation Strategy in a Joint Bistatic Radar and Communication System Based on Low Probability of Intercept.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shi, Chenguang; Wang, Fei; Salous, Sana; Zhou, Jianjiang

    2017-11-25

    In this paper, we investigate a low probability of intercept (LPI)-based optimal power allocation strategy for a joint bistatic radar and communication system, which is composed of a dedicated transmitter, a radar receiver, and a communication receiver. The joint system is capable of fulfilling the requirements of both radar and communications simultaneously. First, assuming that the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) corresponding to the target surveillance path is much weaker than that corresponding to the line of sight path at radar receiver, the analytically closed-form expression for the probability of false alarm is calculated, whereas the closed-form expression for the probability of detection is not analytically tractable and is approximated due to the fact that the received signals are not zero-mean Gaussian under target presence hypothesis. Then, an LPI-based optimal power allocation strategy is presented to minimize the total transmission power for information signal and radar waveform, which is constrained by a specified information rate for the communication receiver and the desired probabilities of detection and false alarm for the radar receiver. The well-known bisection search method is employed to solve the resulting constrained optimization problem. Finally, numerical simulations are provided to reveal the effects of several system parameters on the power allocation results. It is also demonstrated that the LPI performance of the joint bistatic radar and communication system can be markedly improved by utilizing the proposed scheme.

  15. ISTEF Laser Radar Program

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Stryjewski, John

    1998-01-01

    The BMDO Innovative Science and Technology Experimentation Facility (BMDO/ISTEF) laser radar program is engaged in an ongoing program to develop and demonstrate advanced laser radar concepts for Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD...

  16. I. The effect of volcanic aerosols on ultraviolet radiation in Antarctica. II. A novel method for enhancing subsurface radar imaging using radar interferometry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tsitas, Steven Ronald

    The theory of radiative transfer is used to explain how a stratospheric aerosol layer may, for large solar zenith angles, increase the flux of UV-B light at the ground. As previous explanations are heuristic and incomplete, I first provide a rigorous and complete explanation of how this occurs. I show that an aerosol layer lying above Antarctica during spring will decrease the integrated daily dose of biologically weighted irradiance, weighted by the erythema action spectrum, by only up to 5%. Thus after a volcanic eruption, life in Antarctica during spring will suffer the combined effects of the spring ozone hole and ozone destruction induced by volcanic aerosols, with the latter effect only slightly offset by aerosol scattering. I extend subsurface radar imaging by considering the additional information that may be derived from radar interferometry. I show that, under the conditions that temporal and spatial decorrelation between observations is small so that the effects of these decorrelations do not swamp the signature expected from a subsurface layer, the depth of burial of the lower surface may be derived. Also, the echoes from the lower and upper surfaces may be separated. The method is tested with images acquired by SIR-C of the area on the Egypt/Sudan border where buried river channels were first observed by SIR-A. Temporal decorrelation between the images, due to some combination of physical changes in the scene, changes in the spacecraft attitude and errors in the processing by NASA of the raw radar echoes into the synthetic aperture radar images, swamps the expected signature for a layer up to 40 meters thick. I propose a test to determine whether or not simultaneous observations are required, and then detail the radar system requirements for successful application of the method for both possible outcomes of the test. I also describe in detail the possible applications of the method. These include measuring the depth of burial of ice in the polar

  17. Ultra-Broad Band Radar Cross Section Reduction of Waveguide Slot Antenna with Metamaterials

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qiang Fu

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available To reduce the radar cross section of a waveguide slot antenna, a three-layer metamaterial is presented based on orthogonal double split-ring resonators. The absorption characteristics of three-layer metamaterial are demonstrated by simulation. Moreover, the metamaterials have been loaded on common waveguide slot antenna according to the surface current distribution. The ultra-broad band radar cross section reduction of the antenna with metamaterials had been theoretically and experimentally investigated by radiating and scattering performances. Experimental and simulated results showed that the proposed antenna with metamaterials performed broadband radar cross section reduction from 3.9 GHz to 18 GHz and the gain had been improved due to the coupling effect between slot and the period structure. The maximal radar cross section reduction achieved 17.81 dB at 8.68 GHz for x-polarized incidence and 21.79 dB at 6.25 GHz for y-polarized waves.

  18. The relationship between the microwave radar cross section and both wind speed and stress: Model function studies using Frontal Air-Sea Interaction Experiment data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weissman, David E.; Davidson, Kenneth L.; Brown, Robert A.; Friehe, Carl A.; Li, Fuk

    1994-01-01

    The Frontal Air-Sea Interaction Experiment (FASINEX) provided a unique data set with coincident airborne scatterometer measurements of the ocean surface radar cross section (RCS)(at Ku band) and near-surface wind and wind stress. These data have been analyzed to study new model functions which relate wind speed and surface friction velocity (square root of the kinematic wind stress) to the radar cross section and to better understand the processes in the boundary layer that have a strong influence on the radar backscatter. Studies of data from FASINEX indicate that the RCS has a different relation to the friction velocity than to the wind speed. The difference between the RCS models using these two variables depends on the polarization and the incidence angle. The radar data have been acquired from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory airborne scatterometer. These data span 10 different flight days. Stress measurements were inferred from shipboard instruments and from aircraft flying at low altitudes, closely following the scatterometer. Wide ranges of radar incidence angles and environmental conditions needed to fully develop algorithms are available from this experiment.

  19. Radar and electronic navigation

    CERN Document Server

    Sonnenberg, G J

    2013-01-01

    Radar and Electronic Navigation, Sixth Edition discusses radar in marine navigation, underwater navigational aids, direction finding, the Decca navigator system, and the Omega system. The book also describes the Loran system for position fixing, the navy navigation satellite system, and the global positioning system (GPS). It reviews the principles, operation, presentations, specifications, and uses of radar. It also describes GPS, a real time position-fixing system in three dimensions (longitude, latitude, altitude), plus velocity information with Universal Time Coordinated (UTC). It is accur

  20. Weather Radar Impact Zones

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data represent an inventory of the national impacts of wind turbine interference with NEXRAD radar stations. This inventory was developed by the NOAA Radar...

  1. Cassini RADAR Observations of Phoebe, Iapetus, Enceladus, and Rhea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ostro, S. J.; West, R. D.; Janssen, M. A.; Zebker, H. A.; Wye, L. C.; Lunine, J. I.; Lopes, R. M.; Kelleher, K.; Hamilton, G. A.; Gim, Y.; Anderson, Y. Z.; Boehmer, R. A.; Lorenz, R. D.

    2005-12-01

    Operating in its scatterometry mode, the Cassini radar has obtained 2.2-cm-wavelength echo power spectra from Phoebe on the inbound and outbound legs of its flyby (subradar points at W. Long, Lat. = 245,-22 deg and 328,+27 deg), from Iapetus' leading side (66,+39 deg) and trailing side (296,+44 deg) on the inbound and outbound legs of orbit BC, from Enceladus during orbits 3 (0,0 deg) and 4 (70,-13 deg), and from Rhea during orbit 11 (64,-77 deg). Our echo spectra, obtained in the same linear (SL) polarization as transmitted, are broad, nearly featureless, and much stronger than expected if the echoes were due just to single backreflections. Rather, volume scattering from the subsurface probably is primarily responsible for the echoes. This conclusion is supported by the strong anticorrelation between our targets' radar albedos (radar cross section divided by target projected area) and disc brightness temperatures estimated from passive radiometric measurements obtained during each radar flyby. Taking advantage of the available information about the radar properties of the icy satellites of Saturn and Jupiter, especially the linear- and circular-polarization characteristics of groundbased echoes from the icy Galilean satellites (Ostro et al. 1992, J. Geophys. Res. 97, 18227-18244), we estimate our targets' 2.2-cm total-power (TP) albedos and compare them to Arecibo and Goldstone values for icy satellites at 3.5, 13, and 70 cm. Our four targets' albedos span an order of magnitude and decrease in the same order as their optical albedos: Enceladus/Rhea/Iapetus/Phoebe. This sequence most likely corresponds to increasing contamination of near-surface water ice, whose extremely low electrical loss at radio wavelengths permits the multiple scattering responsible for high radar albedos. Plausible candidates for contaminants causing variations in radar albedo include ammonia, silicates, and polar organics. Modeling of icy Galilean satellite echoes indicates that penetration

  2. A new low-cost 10 ns pulsed K(a)-band radar.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eskelinen, Pekka; Ylinen, Juhana

    2011-07-01

    Two Gunn oscillators, conventional intermediate frequency building blocks, and a modified GaAs diode detector are combined to form a portable monostatic 10 ns instrumentation radar for outdoor K(a)-band radar cross section measurements. At 37.8 GHz the radar gives +20 dBm output power and its tangential sensitivity is -76 dBm. Processing bandwidth is 125 MHz, which also allows for some frequency drift in the Gunn devices. Intra-pulse frequency chirp is less than 15 MHz. All functions are steered by a microcontroller. First measurements convince that the construction has a reasonable ability to reduce close-to-ground surface clutter and gives an effective way of resolving target detail. This is beneficial especially when amplitude fluctuations disturb measurements with longer pulses. The new unit operates on 12 V dc, draws a current of less than 3 A, and weighs 5 kg.

  3. Active microwave remote sensing research program plan. Recommendations of the Earth Resources Synthetic Aperture Radar Task Force. [application areas: vegetation canopies, surface water, surface morphology, rocks and soils, and man-made structures

    Science.gov (United States)

    1980-01-01

    A research program plan developed by the Office of Space and Terrestrial Applications to provide guidelines for a concentrated effort to improve the understanding of the measurement capabilities of active microwave imaging sensors, and to define the role of such sensors in future Earth observations programs is outlined. The focus of the planned activities is on renewable and non-renewable resources. Five general application areas are addressed: (1) vegetation canopies, (2) surface water, (3) surface morphology, (4) rocks and soils, and (5) man-made structures. Research tasks are described which, when accomplished, will clearly establish the measurement capabilities in each area, and provide the theoretical and empirical results needed to specify and justify satellite systems using imaging radar sensors for global observations.

  4. Estimation of the near surface soil water content during evaporation using air-launched ground-penetrating radar

    KAUST Repository

    Moghadas, Davood

    2014-01-01

    Evaporation is an important process in the global water cycle and its variation affects the near sur-face soil water content, which is crucial for surface hydrology and climate modelling. Soil evaporation rate is often characterized by two distinct phases, namely, the energy limited phase (stage-I) and the soil hydraulic limited period (stage-II). In this paper, a laboratory experiment was conducted using a sand box filled with fine sand, which was subject to evaporation for a period of twenty three days. The setup was equipped with a weighting system to record automatically the weight of the sand box with a constant time-step. Furthermore, time-lapse air-launched ground penetrating radar (GPR) measurements were performed to monitor the evaporation process. The GPR model involves a full-waveform frequency-domain solution of Maxwell\\'s equations for wave propagation in three-dimensional multilayered media. The accuracy of the full-waveform GPR forward modelling with respect to three different petrophysical models was investigated. Moreover, full-waveform inversion of the GPR data was used to estimate the quantitative information, such as near surface soil water content. The two stages of evaporation can be clearly observed in the radargram, which indicates qualitatively that enough information is contained in the GPR data. The full-waveform GPR inversion allows for accurate estimation of the near surface soil water content during extended evaporation phases, when a wide frequency range of GPR (0.8-5.0 GHz) is taken into account. In addition, the results indicate that the CRIM model may constitute a relevant alternative in solving the frequency-dependency issue for full waveform GPR modelling.

  5. INTERFEROMETRIC SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR (INSAR TECHNOLOGY AND GEOMORPHOLOGY INTERPRETATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Maghsoudi

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available Geomorphology is briefly the study of landforms and their formative processes on the surface of the planet earth as human habitat. The landforms evolution and the formative processes can best be studied by technologies with main application in study of elevation. Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR is the appropriate technology for this application. With phase differences calculations in radar waves, the results of this technology can extensively be interpreted for geomorphologic researches. The purpose of the study is to review the geomorphologic studies using InSAR and also the technical studies about InSAR with geomorphologic interpretations. This study states that the InSAR technology can be recommended to be employed as a fundamental for geomorphology researches.

  6. Is there radar evidence for liquid water on Mars?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roth, L. E.

    1984-01-01

    The hypothesis that an extraordinary radar smoothness of a lunar target suggests that ground moisture is rest on the assumption that on the penetration-depth scale, the dielectric constant be an isotropic quantity. In other words, the planet's surface should have no vertical structure. Results of modeling exercises (based on the early lunar two-layer models) conducted to simulate the behavior of radar reflectivity, at S-band, over Solis Lacus, without manipulating the dielectric constant of the base layer (i.e., without adding moisture) are summarized. More sophisticated, explicit, rather than iterative multi-layer models involving dust, duricrust, mollisol, and permafrost are under study. It is anticipated that a paradoxical situation will be reached when each improvement in the model introduces additional ambiguities into the data interpretation.

  7. Research on Radar Cross Section Measurement Based on Near-field Imaging of Cylindrical Scanning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xing Shu-guang

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available A new method of Radar Cross Section (RCS measurement based on near-field imaging of cylindrical scanning surface is proposed. The method is based on the core assumption that the target consists of ideal isotropic scattered centers. Three-dimensional radar scattered images are obtained by using the proposed method, and then to obtain the RCS of the target, the scattered far field is calculated by summing the fields generated by the equivalent scattered centers. Not only three dimensional radar reflectivity images but also the RCS of targets in certain three dimensional angle areas can be obtained. Compared with circular scanning that can only obtain twodimensional radar reflectivity images and RCS results in two-dimensional angle areas, cylindrical scanning can provide more information about the scattering properties of the targets. The method has strong practicability and its validity is verified by simulations.

  8. Dielectric properties of Jovian satellite ice analogs for subsurface radar exploration: A review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pettinelli, Elena; Cosciotti, Barbara; Di Paolo, Federico; Lauro, Sebastian Emanuel; Mattei, Elisabetta; Orosei, Roberto; Vannaroni, Giuliano

    2015-09-01

    The first European mission dedicated to the exploration of Jupiter and its icy moons (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer—JUICE) will be launched in 2022 and will reach its final destination in 2030. The main goals of this mission are to understand the internal structure of the icy crusts of three Galilean satellites (Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto) and, ultimately, to detect Europa's subsurface ocean, which is believed to be the closest to the surface among those hypothesized to exist on these moons. JUICE will be equipped with the 9 MHz subsurface-penetrating radar RIME (Radar for Icy Moon Exploration), which is designed to image the ice down to a depth of 9 km. Moreover, a parallel mission to Europa, which will host onboard REASON (Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface) equipped with 9MHz and 60MHz antennas, has been recently approved by NASA. The success of these experiments strongly relies on the accurate prediction of the radar performance and on the optimal processing and interpretation of radar echoes that, in turn, depend on the dielectric properties of the materials composing the icy satellite crusts. In the present review we report a complete range of potential ice types that may occur on these icy satellites to understand how they may affect the results of the proposed missions. First, we discuss the experimental results on pure and doped water ice in the framework of the Jaccard theory, highlighting the critical aspects in terms of a lack of standard laboratory procedures and inconsistency in data interpretation. We then describe the dielectric behavior of extraterrestrial ice analogs like hydrates and icy mixtures, carbon dioxide ice and ammonia ice. Building on this review, we have selected the most suitable data to compute dielectric attenuation, velocity, vertical resolution, and reflection coefficients for such icy moon environments, with the final goal being to estimate the potential capabilities of the radar missions as a

  9. Pocket radar guide key facts, equations, and data

    CERN Document Server

    Curry, G Richard

    2010-01-01

    ThePocket Radar Guideis a concise collection of key radar facts and important radar data that provides you with necessary radar information when you are away from your office or references. It includes statements and comments on radar design, operation, and performance; equations describing the characteristics and performance of radar systems and their components; and tables with data on radar characteristics and key performance issues.It is intended to supplement other radar information sources by providing a pocket companion to refresh memory and provide details whenever you need them such a

  10. Searching for Stable SinCn Clusters: Combination of Stochastic Potential Surface Search and Pseudopotential Plane-Wave Car-Parinello Simulated Annealing Simulations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Larry W. Burggraf

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available To find low energy SinCn structures out of hundreds to thousands of isomers we have developed a general method to search for stable isomeric structures that combines Stochastic Potential Surface Search and Pseudopotential Plane-Wave Density Functional Theory Car-Parinello Molecular Dynamics simulated annealing (PSPW-CPMD-SA. We enhanced the Sunders stochastic search method to generate random cluster structures used as seed structures for PSPW-CPMD-SA simulations. This method ensures that each SA simulation samples a different potential surface region to find the regional minimum structure. By iterations of this automated, parallel process on a high performance computer we located hundreds to more than a thousand stable isomers for each SinCn cluster. Among these, five to 10 of the lowest energy isomers were further optimized using B3LYP/cc-pVTZ method. We applied this method to SinCn (n = 4–12 clusters and found the lowest energy structures, most not previously reported. By analyzing the bonding patterns of low energy structures of each SinCn cluster, we observed that carbon segregations tend to form condensed conjugated rings while Si connects to unsaturated bonds at the periphery of the carbon segregation as single atoms or clusters when n is small and when n is large a silicon network spans over the carbon segregation region.

  11. Beam Expansion of Blind Spot Detection Radar Antennas Using a Radome with Defected Corrugated Inner Wall

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hayeon Kim

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available A beam expanding radome for 76.5 GHz automotive radar antennas is presented whose inner surface is engraved with corrugations. The radar used for blind spot detection (BSD requires a very wide beam width to ensure longer time for tracking out-of-sight objects. It is found that the corrugations modulate the phase velocities of the waves along the surface, which increases beam width in the far field. In addition, defects in the corrugation increase beam width even further. The presented structure satisfies the beam width requirement while keeping a low profile.

  12. Extended Target Recognition in Cognitive Radar Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiqin Wang

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available We address the problem of adaptive waveform design for extended target recognition in cognitive radar networks. A closed-loop active target recognition radar system is extended to the case of a centralized cognitive radar network, in which a generalized likelihood ratio (GLR based sequential hypothesis testing (SHT framework is employed. Using Doppler velocities measured by multiple radars, the target aspect angle for each radar is calculated. The joint probability of each target hypothesis is then updated using observations from different radar line of sights (LOS. Based on these probabilities, a minimum correlation algorithm is proposed to adaptively design the transmit waveform for each radar in an amplitude fluctuation situation. Simulation results demonstrate performance improvements due to the cognitive radar network and adaptive waveform design. Our minimum correlation algorithm outperforms the eigen-waveform solution and other non-cognitive waveform design approaches.

  13. 3D-SURFER 2.0: web platform for real-time search and characterization of protein surfaces.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xiong, Yi; Esquivel-Rodriguez, Juan; Sael, Lee; Kihara, Daisuke

    2014-01-01

    The increasing number of uncharacterized protein structures necessitates the development of computational approaches for function annotation using the protein tertiary structures. Protein structure database search is the basis of any structure-based functional elucidation of proteins. 3D-SURFER is a web platform for real-time protein surface comparison of a given protein structure against the entire PDB using 3D Zernike descriptors. It can smoothly navigate the protein structure space in real-time from one query structure to another. A major new feature of Release 2.0 is the ability to compare the protein surface of a single chain, a single domain, or a single complex against databases of protein chains, domains, complexes, or a combination of all three in the latest PDB. Additionally, two types of protein structures can now be compared: all-atom-surface and backbone-atom-surface. The server can also accept a batch job for a large number of database searches. Pockets in protein surfaces can be identified by VisGrid and LIGSITE (csc) . The server is available at http://kiharalab.org/3d-surfer/.

  14. Detection of Weather Radar Clutter

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bøvith, Thomas

    2008-01-01

    classification and use a range of different techniques and input data. The first method uses external information from multispectral satellite images to detect clutter. The information in the visual, near-infrared, and infrared parts of the spectrum can be used to distinguish between cloud and cloud-free areas......Weather radars provide valuable information on precipitation in the atmosphere but due to the way radars work, not only precipitation is observed by the weather radar. Weather radar clutter, echoes from non-precipitating targets, occur frequently in the data, resulting in lowered data quality....... Especially in the application of weather radar data in quantitative precipitation estimation and forecasting a high data quality is important. Clutter detection is one of the key components in achieving this goal. This thesis presents three methods for detection of clutter. The methods use supervised...

  15. Penn State Radar Systems: Implementation and Observations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Urbina, J. V.; Seal, R.; Sorbello, R.; Kuyeng, K.; Dyrud, L. P.

    2014-12-01

    Software Defined Radio/Radar (SDR) platforms have become increasingly popular as researchers, hobbyists, and military seek more efficient and cost-effective means for radar construction and operation. SDR platforms, by definition, utilize a software-based interface for configuration in contrast to traditional, hard-wired platforms. In an effort to provide new and improved radar sensing capabilities, Penn State has been developing advanced instruments and technologies for future radars, with primary objectives of making such instruments more capable, portable, and more cost effective. This paper will describe the design and implementation of two low-cost radar systems and their deployment in ionospheric research at both low and mid-latitudes. One radar has been installed near Penn State campus, University Park, Pennsylvania (77.97°W, 40.70°N), to make continuous meteor observations and mid-latitude plasma irregularities. The second radar is being installed in Huancayo (12.05°S, -75.33°E), Peru, which is capable of detecting E and F region plasma irregularities as well as meteor reflections. In this paper, we examine and compare the diurnal and seasonal variability of specular, non- specular, and head-echoes collected with these two new radar systems and discuss sampling biases of each meteor observation technique. We report our current efforts to validate and calibrate these radar systems with other VHF radars such as Jicamarca and SOUSY. We also present the general characteristics of continuous measurements of E-region and F-region coherent echoes using these modern radar systems and compare them with coherent radar events observed at other geographic mid-latitude radar stations.

  16. Notch Filter Analysis and Its Application in Passive Coherent Location Radar (in English

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Li Ji-chuan

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The Normalized Least-Mean-Squares (NLMS algorithm is widely used to cancel the direct and multiple path interferences in Passive Coherent Location (PCL radar systems. This study proposes that the interference cancelation using the NLMS algorithm and the calculation of the radar Cross Ambiguity Function (CAF can be modeled as a notch filter, with the notch located at zero Doppler frequency in the surface of the radar CAF. The analysis shows that the notch’s width and depth are closely related to the step size of the NLMS algorithm. Subsequently, the effect of the notch in PCL radar target detection is analyzed. The results suggest that the detection performance of the PCL radar deteriorates because of the wide notch. Furthermore, the Nonuniform NLMS (NNLMS algorithm is proposed for removing the clutter with the Doppler frequency by using notch filtering. A step-size matrix is adopted to mitigate the low Doppler frequency clutter and lower the floor of the radar CAF. With the step-size matrix, can be obtained notches of different depths and widths in different range units of the CAF, which can filter the low Doppler frequency clutter. In addition, the convergence rate of the NNLMS algorithm is better than that of the traditional NLMS algorithm. The validity of the NNLMS algorithm is verified by experimental results.

  17. SMAP RADAR Calibration and Validation

    Science.gov (United States)

    West, R. D.; Jaruwatanadilok, S.; Chaubel, M. J.; Spencer, M.; Chan, S. F.; Chen, C. W.; Fore, A.

    2015-12-01

    The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission launched on Jan 31, 2015. The mission employs L-band radar and radiometer measurements to estimate soil moisture with 4% volumetric accuracy at a resolution of 10 km, and freeze-thaw state at a resolution of 1-3 km. Immediately following launch, there was a three month instrument checkout period, followed by six months of level 1 (L1) calibration and validation. In this presentation, we will discuss the calibration and validation activities and results for the L1 radar data. Early SMAP radar data were used to check commanded timing parameters, and to work out issues in the low- and high-resolution radar processors. From April 3-13 the radar collected receive only mode data to conduct a survey of RFI sources. Analysis of the RFI environment led to a preferred operating frequency. The RFI survey data were also used to validate noise subtraction and scaling operations in the radar processors. Normal radar operations resumed on April 13. All radar data were examined closely for image quality and calibration issues which led to improvements in the radar data products for the beta release at the end of July. Radar data were used to determine and correct for small biases in the reported spacecraft attitude. Geo-location was validated against coastline positions and the known positions of corner reflectors. Residual errors at the time of the beta release are about 350 m. Intra-swath biases in the high-resolution backscatter images are reduced to less than 0.3 dB for all polarizations. Radiometric cross-calibration with Aquarius was performed using areas of the Amazon rain forest. Cross-calibration was also examined using ocean data from the low-resolution processor and comparing with the Aquarius wind model function. Using all a-priori calibration constants provided good results with co-polarized measurements matching to better than 1 dB, and cross-polarized measurements matching to about 1 dB in the beta release. During the

  18. Solid-state radar switchboard

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thiebaud, P.; Cross, D. C.

    1980-07-01

    A new solid-state radar switchboard equipped with 16 input ports which will output data to 16 displays is presented. Each of the ports will handle a single two-dimensional radar input, or three ports will accommodate a three-dimensional radar input. A video switch card of the switchboard is used to switch all signals, with the exception of the IFF-mode-control lines. Each card accepts inputs from up to 16 sources and can pass a signal with bandwidth greater than 20 MHz to the display assigned to that card. The synchro amplifier of current systems has been eliminated and in the new design each PPI receives radar data via a single coaxial cable. This significant reduction in cabling is achieved by adding a serial-to-parallel interface and a digital-to-synchro converter located at the PPI.

  19. Radar data processing using a distributed computational system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mota, Gilberto F.

    1992-06-01

    This research specifies and validates a new concurrent decomposition scheme, called Confined Space Search Decomposition (CSSD), to exploit parallelism of Radar Data Processing algorithms using a Distributed Computational System. To formalize the specification, we propose and apply an object-oriented methodology called Decomposition Cost Evaluation Model (DCEM). To reduce the penalties of load imbalance, we propose a distributed dynamic load balance heuristic called Object Reincarnation (OR). To validate the research, we first compare our decomposition with an identified alternative using the proposed DCEM model and then develop a theoretical prediction of selected parameters. We also develop a simulation to check the Object Reincarnation Concept.

  20. 3D radar wavefield tomography of comet interiors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sava, Paul; Asphaug, Erik

    2018-04-01

    Answering fundamental questions about the origin and evolution of small planetary bodies hinges on our ability to image their surface and interior structure in detail and at high resolution. The interior structure is not easily accessible without systematic imaging using, e.g., radar transmission and reflection data from multiple viewpoints, as in medical tomography. Radar tomography can be performed using methodology adapted from terrestrial exploration seismology. Our feasibility study primarily focuses on full wavefield methods that facilitate high quality imaging of small body interiors. We consider the case of a monostatic system (co-located transmitters and receivers) operated in various frequency bands between 5 and 15 MHz, from a spacecraft in slow polar orbit around a spinning comet nucleus. Using realistic numerical experiments, we demonstrate that wavefield techniques can generate high resolution tomograms of comets nuclei with arbitrary shape and complex interior properties.

  1. THE RESULTS OF THE DEFECT PLACES INVESTIGATION OF DONETSK RAILWAY ROAD BED BY GROUND PENETRATING RADAR COMPLEX

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. D. Petrenko

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Purpose. Defective places definition of road bed at ground penetrating radar is examined. Methodology. For achievement of this goal the experimental research on ground penetrating radar inspection of road bed defective places of the Donetsk Railway, which are caused by a complex of various reasons of geotechnical and constructive character, were conducted. Findings. According to these diagnostic results of road bed on the three districts of the Donetsk Railway is revealed the main causes which lead to the defects appearance, deformities and injuries in it, there is abuse of process parameters and modify its physic mechanical soil properties of natural and technology-related factors. As it is established, the use of ground penetrating radar of series “Losa” on the railways of Ukraine allows searching ballast tank in the body of road bed, defining damp places in soil road bed and foundations, to find arrangement of foreign matter in the soil road bed and work search heterogeneity and places weakening soil. In addition, the use of ground penetrating radar provides rapid detection of defects, deformation and damage of railway track, especially in areas the most dangerous for rolling stock that creates the high level security at the main and auxiliary lines of Ukrzaliznytsia. In conducting the research was justified the high level of reliability and performance with autonomous use of ground penetrating radar. Originality. In modern conditions of defects determination, deformations and damages by traditional methods with application of engineering-geological investigations, it is impossible in connection with their insufficient efficiency. Therefore the using of highly effective methodology of expeditious tool identification of defective places allows reducing significantly the periods of repair of a railway track which is very important for introduction of the high-speed movement on the Ukrainian Railways. Practical value. On the basis of the

  2. Development of Spaceborne Radar Simulator by NICT and JAXA using JMA Cloud-resolving Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kubota, T.; Eito, H.; Aonashi, K.; Hashimoto, A.; Iguchi, T.; Hanado, H.; Shimizu, S.; Yoshida, N.; Oki, R.

    2009-12-01

    We are developing synthetic spaceborne radar data toward a simulation of the Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) aboard the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) core-satellite. Our purposes are a production of test-bed data for higher level DPR algorithm developers, in addition to a diagnosis of a cloud resolving model (CRM). To make the synthetic data, we utilize the CRM by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA-NHM) (Ikawa and Saito 1991, Saito et al. 2006, 2007), and the spaceborne radar simulation algorithm by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) named as the Integrated Satellite Observation Simulator for Radar (ISOSIM-Radar). The ISOSIM-Radar simulates received power data in a field of view of the spaceborne radar with consideration to a scan angle of the radar (Oouchi et al. 2002, Kubota et al. 2009). The received power data are computed with gaseous and hydrometeor attenuations taken into account. The backscattering and extinction coefficients are calculated assuming the Mie approximation for all species. The dielectric constants for solid particles are computed by the Maxwell-Garnett model (Bohren and Battan 1982). Drop size distributions are treated in accordance with those of the JMA-NHM. We assume a spherical sea surface, a Gaussian antenna pattern, and 49 antenna beam directions for scan angles from -17 to 17 deg. in the PR. In this study, we report the diagnosis of the JMA-NHM with reference to the TRMM Precipitation Radar (PR) and CloudSat Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) using the ISOSIM-Radar from the view of comparisons in cloud microphysics schemes of the JMA-NHM. We tested three kinds of explicit bulk microphysics schemes based on Lin et al. (1983), that is, three-ice 1-moment scheme, three-ice 2-moment scheme (Eito and Aonashi 2009), and newly developed four-ice full 2-moment scheme (Hashimoto 2008). The hydrometeor species considered here are rain, graupel

  3. Experimental measurement and theoretical modeling of microwave scattering and the structure of the sea surface influencing radar observations from space

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arnold, David; Kong, J. A.

    1992-01-01

    The electromagnetic (EM) bias 'epsilon' is an error present in radar altimetry of the ocean due to the nonuniform reflection from wave troughs and crests. The EM bias is defined as the difference between the mean reflecting surface and the mean sea surface. A knowledge of the EM bias is necessary to permit error reduction in mean sea level measurements by satellite radar altimeters. Direct measurements of the EM bias were made from a Shell Offshore oil production platform in the Gulf of Mexico for a six month period during 1989 and 1990. Measurements of the EM bias were made at 5 and 14 Ghz. During the EM bias experiments by Melville et al., a wire wave gauge was used to obtain the modulation of the high frequency waves by the low frequency waves. It became apparent that the EM bias was primarily caused by the modulation of the short waves. This was reported by Arnold et al. The EM bias is explained using physical optics scattering and an empirical model for the short wave modulation. Measurements of the short wave modulation using a wire wave gauge demonstrated a linear dependence of the normalized bias on the short wave modulation strength, M. The theory accurately predicts this dependence by the relation epsilon = -alphaMH sub 1/3. The wind speed dependence of the normalized bias is explained by the dependence of the short wave modulation strength on the wind speed. While other effects such as long wave tilt and curvature will have an effect on the bias, the primary cause of the bias is shown to be due to the short wave modulation. This report will present a theory using physical optics scattering and an empirical model of the short wave modulation to estimate the EM bias. The estimated EM bias will be compared to measurements at C and Ku bands.

  4. The use of radar for bathymetry assessment

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Aardoom, J.H.; Greidanus, H.S.F.

    1998-01-01

    The bottom topography in shallow seas can be observed by air- and spaceborne imaging radar. Bathymetric information derived from radar data is limited in accuracy, but radar has a good spatial coverage. The accuracy can be increased by assimilating the radar imagery into existing or insitu gathered

  5. Cassini RADAR at Titan : Results in 2013/2014

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lorenz, Ralph D.; Cassini RadarTeam

    2014-05-01

    Since the last EGU meeting, several Cassini flybys of Titan have featured significant RADAR observations. These include T91 and T92 (May/July 2013) with SAR and altimetry observations of Ligeia Mare. The latter have placed tight constraints on surface roughness (Zebker et al., in press), showing that wind-driven waves were not present. A remarkable altimetry analysis by Mastrogiuseppe et al. (submitted) detects a bottom echo from the bed of Ligeia, only possible if the liquid is exceptionally radar-transparent. This opens the way to wider radar bathymetry analyses of the northern seas. SAR coverage, augmented by some distant HiSAR observations, has now allowed construction of a more-or-less complete map of the northern polar region. This map now defines the extent of the northern lakes and seas, permitting oceanographic studies. T95 (October 2013) made SAR observations of the impact crater Selk (previously observed by VIMS and RADAR). As well as a closer view of this rather polygonal crater, the observation shows dramatic change in the dune orientation around the crater and its ejecta blanket. The T98 encounter is due to occur in February 2014, and will feature the last prime SAR observation of Ontario Lacus, giving a good baseline for change detection against prior observations. Additionally, close-approach observations (mandated to avoid solar heating constraints on other instruments) will give high-resolution altimetry data on the Shangri-La dunes. Preliminary results may be available in time for the meeting, at which this solicted talk will review analyses of these and other observations.

  6. A study of the radar backscattering from the breaking of wind waves on the sea

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ivanov, V.A.; Yurovskij, Yu.Yu.; Malinovskij, V.V.

    2011-01-01

    The results of a field study of the relationship between radar backscattering parameters and geometrical characteristics of the wind wave breaking are presented. The radar cross-section of a whitecap is found to be proportional to the breaking crest length. It is shown that the accounting for a change of the non-Bragg scattering in the presence of an oil slick on the sea surface allows one to interpret experimental data correctly.

  7. Retrieving surface soil moisture at high spatio-temporal resolution from a synergy between Sentinel-1 radar and Landsat thermal data: A study case over bare soil

    KAUST Repository

    Amazirh, Abdelhakim

    2018-04-24

    Radar data have been used to retrieve and monitor the surface soil moisture (SM) changes in various conditions. However, the calibration of radar models whether empirically or physically-based, is still subject to large uncertainties especially at high-spatial resolution. To help calibrate radar-based retrieval approaches to supervising SM at high resolution, this paper presents an innovative synergistic method combining Sentinel-1 (S1) microwave and Landsat-7/8 (L7/8) thermal data. First, the S1 backscatter coefficient was normalized by its maximum and minimum values obtained during 2015–2016 agriculture season. Second, the normalized S1 backscatter coefficient was calibrated from reference points provided by a thermal-derived SM proxy named soil evaporative efficiency (SEE, defined as the ratio of actual to potential soil evaporation). SEE was estimated as the radiometric soil temperature normalized by its minimum and maximum values reached in a water-saturated and dry soil, respectively. We estimated both soil temperature endmembers by using a soil energy balance model forced by available meteorological forcing. The proposed approach was evaluated against in situ SM measurements collected over three bare soil fields in a semi-arid region in Morocco and we compared it against a classical approach based on radar data only. The two polarizations VV (vertical transmit and receive) and VH (vertical transmit and horizontal receive) of the S1 data available over the area are tested to analyse the sensitivity of radar signal to SM at high incidence angles (39°–43°). We found that the VV polarization was better correlated to SM than the VH polarization with a determination coefficient of 0.47 and 0.28, respectively. By combining S1 (VV) and L7/8 data, we reduced the root mean square difference between satellite and in situ SM to 0.03 m3 m−3, which is far smaller than 0.16 m3 m−3 when using S1 (VV) only.

  8. Bistatic radar

    CERN Document Server

    Willis, Nick

    2004-01-01

    Annotation his book is a major extension of a chapter on bistatic radar written by the author for the Radar Handbook, 2nd edition, edited by Merrill Skolnik. It provides a history of bistatic systems that points out to potential designers the applications that have worked and the dead-ends not worth pursuing. The text reviews the basic concepts and definitions, and explains the mathematical development of relationships, such as geometry, Ovals of Cassini, dynamic range, isorange and isodoppler contours, target doppler, and clutter doppler spread.Key Features * All development and analysis are

  9. Polarimetric Radar Retrievals in Southeast Texas During Hurricane Harvey

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wolff, D. B.; Petersen, W. A.; Tokay, A.; Marks, D. A.; Pippitt, J. L.; Kirstetter, P. E.

    2017-12-01

    Hurricane Harvey hit the Texas Gulf Coast as a major hurricane on August 25, 2017 before exiting the state as a tropical storm on September 1, 2017. In its wake, it left a flood of historic proportions, with some areas measuring 60 inches of rain over a five-day period. Although the storm center stayed west of the immediate Houston area training bands of precipitation impacted the Houston area for five full days. The National Weather Service (NWS) WSR88D dual-polarimetric radar (KHGX), located southeast of Houston, maintained operations for the entirety of the event. The Harris County Flood Warning System (HCFWS) had 150 rain gauges deployed in its network and seven NWS Automated Surface Observing Systems (ASOS) rain gauges are also located in the area. In this study, we used the full radar data set to retrieve daily and event-total precipitation estimates within 120 km of the KHGX radar for the period August 25-29, 2017. These estimates were then compared to the HCFWS and ASOS gauges. Three different polarimetric hybrid rainfall retrievals were used: Ciffeli et al. 2011; Bringi et al. 2004; and, Chen et al. 2017. Each of these hybrid retrievals have demonstrated robust performance in the past. However, both daily and event-total comparisons from each of these retrievals compared to those of HCFWS and ASOS rain gauge networks resulted in significant underestimates by the radar retrievals. These radar underestimates are concerning. Sources of error and variance will be investigated to understand the source of radar-gauge disagreement. One current hypothesis is that due to the large number of small drops often found in hurricanes, the differential reflectivity and specific differential phase are relatively small so that the hybrid algorithms use only the reflectivity/rain rate procedure (so called Z-R relationships), and hence rarely invoke the ZDR or KDP procedures. Thus, an alternative Z-R relationship must be invoked to retrieve accurate rain rate estimates.

  10. Relating multifrequency radar backscattering to forest biomass: Modeling and AIRSAR measurement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Guo-Qing; Ranson, K. Jon

    1992-01-01

    During the last several years, significant efforts in microwave remote sensing were devoted to relating forest parameters to radar backscattering coefficients. These and other studies showed that in most cases, the longer wavelength (i.e. P band) and cross-polarization (HV) backscattering had higher sensitivity and better correlation to forest biomass. This research examines this relationship in a northern forest area through both backscatter modeling and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data analysis. The field measurements were used to estimate stand biomass from forest weight tables. The backscatter model described by Sun et al. was modified to simulate the backscattering coefficients with respect to stand biomass. The average number of trees per square meter or radar resolution cell, and the average tree height or diameter breast height (dbh) in the forest stand are the driving parameters of the model. The rest of the soil surface, orientation, and size distributions of leaves and branches, remain unchanged in the simulations.

  11. Retrieving 3D Wind Field from Phased Array Radar Rapid Scans

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaobin Qiu

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The previous two-dimensional simple adjoint method for retrieving horizontal wind field from a time sequence of single-Doppler scans of reflectivity and/or radial velocity is further developed into a new method to retrieve both horizontal and vertical winds at high temporal and spatial resolutions. This new method performs two steps. First, the horizontal wind field is retrieved on the conical surface at each tilt (elevation angle of radar scan. Second, the vertical velocity field is retrieved in a vertical cross-section along the radar beam with the horizontal velocity given from the first step. The method is applied to phased array radar (PAR rapid scans of the storm winds and reflectivity in a strong microburst event and is shown to be able to retrieve the three-dimensional wind field around a targeted downdraft within the storm that subsequently produced a damaging microburst. The method is computationally very efficient and can be used for real-time applications with PAR rapid scans.

  12. Applying volumetric weather radar data for rainfall runoff modeling: The importance of error correction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hazenberg, P.; Leijnse, H.; Uijlenhoet, R.; Delobbe, L.; Weerts, A.; Reggiani, P.

    2009-04-01

    In the current study half a year of volumetric radar data for the period October 1, 2002 until March 31, 2003 is being analyzed which was sampled at 5 minutes intervals by C-band Doppler radar situated at an elevation of 600 m in the southern Ardennes region, Belgium. During this winter half year most of the rainfall has a stratiform character. Though radar and raingauge will never sample the same amount of rainfall due to differences in sampling strategies, for these stratiform situations differences between both measuring devices become even larger due to the occurrence of a bright band (the point where ice particles start to melt intensifying the radar reflectivity measurement). For these circumstances the radar overestimates the amount of precipitation and because in the Ardennes bright bands occur within 1000 meter from the surface, it's detrimental effects on the performance of the radar can already be observed at relatively close range (e.g. within 50 km). Although the radar is situated at one of the highest points in the region, very close to the radar clutter is a serious problem. As a result both nearby and farther away, using uncorrected radar results in serious errors when estimating the amount of precipitation. This study shows the effect of carefully correcting for these radar errors using volumetric radar data, taking into account the vertical reflectivity profile of the atmosphere, the effects of attenuation and trying to limit the amount of clutter. After applying these correction algorithms, the overall differences between radar and raingauge are much smaller which emphasizes the importance of carefully correcting radar rainfall measurements. The next step is to assess the effect of using uncorrected and corrected radar measurements on rainfall-runoff modeling. The 1597 km2 Ourthe catchment lies within 60 km of the radar. Using a lumped hydrological model serious improvement in simulating observed discharges is found when using corrected radar

  13. Microphysical retrievals from simultaneous polarimetric and profiling radar observations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. P. Morris

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available The character of precipitation detected at the surface is the final product of many microphysical interactions in the cloud above, the combined effects of which may be characterized by the observed drop size distribution (DSD. This necessitates accurate retrieval of the DSD from remote sensing data, especially radar as it offers large areal coverage, high spatial resolution, and rigorous quality control and testing. Combined instrument observations with a UHF wind profiler, an S-band polarimetric weather radar, and a video disdrometer are analyzed for two squall line events occuring during the calendar year 2007. UHF profiler Doppler velocity spectra are used to estimate the DSD aloft, and are complemented by DSDs retrieved from an exponential model applied to polarimetric data. Ground truth is provided by the disdrometer. A complicating factor in the retrieval from UHF profiler spectra is the presence of ambient air motion, which can be corrected using the method proposed by Teshiba et al. (2009, in which a comparison between idealized Doppler spectra calculated from the DSDs retrieved from KOUN and those retrieved from contaminated wind profiler spectra is performed. It is found that DSDs measured using the distrometer at the surface and estimated using the wind profiler and polarimetric weather radar generally showed good agreement. The DSD retrievals using the wind profiler were improved when the estimates of the vertical wind were included into the analysis, thus supporting the method of Teshiba et al. (2009. Furthermore, the the study presents a method of investigating the time and height structure of DSDs.

  14. SHUTTLE IMAGING RADAR: PHYSICAL CONTROLS ON SIGNAL PENETRATION AND SUBSURFACE SCATTERING IN THE EASTERN SAHARA.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schaber, Gerald G.; McCauley, John F.; Breed, Carol S.; Olhoeft, Gary R.

    1986-01-01

    It is found that the Shuttle Imaging Radar A (SIR-A) signal penetration and subsurface backscatter within the upper meter or so of the sediment blanket in the Eastern Sahara of southern Egypt and northern Sudan are enhanced both by radar sensor parameters and by the physical and chemical characteristics of eolian and alluvial materials. The near-surface stratigraphy, the electrical properties of materials, and the types of radar interfaces found to be responsible for different classes of SIR-A tonal response are summarized. The dominant factors related to efficient microwave signal penetration into the sediment blanket include 1) favorable distribution of particle sizes, 2) extremely low moisture content and 3) reduced geometric scattering at the SIR-A frequency (1. 3 GHz). The depth of signal penetration that results in a recorded backscatter, called radar imaging depth, was documented in the field to be a maximum of 1. 5 m, or 0. 25 times the calculated skin depth, for the sediment blanket. The radar imaging depth is estimated to be between 2 and 3 m for active sand dune materials.

  15. Radar spectrum opportunities for cognitive communications transmission

    OpenAIRE

    Wang, L; McGeehan, JP; Williams, C; Doufexi, A

    2008-01-01

    In relation to opportunistic access to radar spectrum, the impact of the radar on a communication system is investigated in this paper. This paper illustrates that by exploring the spatial and temporal opportunities in the radar spectrum and therefore improving the tolerance level to radar interference, a substantial increase on the throughput of a communication system is possible. Results are presented regarding the impact of swept radars on a WiMAX system. The results show the impact of SIR...

  16. HF Radar Observations of Current, Wave and Wind Parameters in the South Australian Gulf

    Science.gov (United States)

    Middleditch, A.; Cosoli, S.

    2016-12-01

    The Australian Coastal Ocean Radar Network (ACORN) has been measuring metocean parameters from an array of HF radar systems since 2007. Current, wave and wind measurements from a WERA phased-array radar system in the South Australian Gulf are evaluated using current meter, wave buoy and weather station data over a 12-month period. The spatial and temporal scales of the radar deployment have been configured for the measurement of surface currents from the first order backscatter spectra. Quality control procedures are applied to the radar currents that relate to the geometric configurations, statistical properties, and diagnostic variables provided by the analysis software. Wave measurements are obtained through an iterative inversion algorithm that provides an estimate of the directional frequency spectrum. The standard static configurations and data sampling strategies are not optimised for waves and so additional signal processing steps need to be implemented in order to provide reliable estimates. These techniques are currently only applied in offline mode but a real-time approach is in development. Improvements in the quality of extracted wave data are found through increased averaging of the raw radar data but the impact of temporal non-stationarity and spatial inhomogeneities in the WERA measurement region needs to be taken into account. Validations of wind direction data from a weather station on Neptune Island show the potential of using HF radar to combat the spread of bushfires in South Australia.

  17. San Andreas Fault, Southern California , Radar Image, Wrapped Color as Height

    Science.gov (United States)

    2000-01-01

    This topographic radar image vividly displays California's famous San Andreas Fault along the southwestern edge of the Mojave Desert, 75 kilometers (46 miles) north of downtown Los Angeles. The entire segment of the fault shown in this image last ruptured during the Fort Tejon earthquake of 1857. This was one of the greatest earthquakes ever recorded in the U.S., and it left an amazing surface rupture scar over 350 kilometers in length along the San Andreas. Were the Fort Tejon shock to happen today, the damage would run into billions of dollars, and the loss of life would likely be substantial, as the communities of Wrightwood, Palmdale, and Lancaster (among others) all lie upon or near the 1857 rupture area. The Lancaster/Palmdale area appears as bright patches just below the center of the image and the San Gabriel Mountains fill the lower left half of the image. At the extreme lower left is Pasadena. High resolution topographic data such as these are used by geologists to study the role of active tectonics in shaping the landscape, and to produce earthquake hazard maps.This image combines two types of data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. The image brightness corresponds to the strength of the radar signal reflected from the ground, while colors show the elevation as measured by SRTM. Each cycle of colors (from pink through blue back to pink) represents an equal amount of elevation difference (400 meters, or 1300 feet) similar to contour lines on a standard topographic map. This image contains about 2400 meters (8000 feet) of total relief.The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), launched on February 11,2000, uses the same radar instrument that comprised the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) that flew twice on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1994. The mission is designed to collect three-dimensional measurements of the Earth's surface. To collect the 3-D data, engineers added a 60-meter-long (200-foot) mast, an

  18. Typhoon 9707 observations with the MU radar and L-band boundary layer radar

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Teshiba

    2001-08-01

    Full Text Available Typhoon 9707 (Opal was observed with the VHF-band Middle and Upper atmosphere (MU radar, an L-band boundary layer radar (BLR, and a vertical-pointing C-band meteorological radar at the Shigaraki MU Observatory in Shiga prefecture, Japan on 20 June 1997. The typhoon center passed about 80 km southeast from the radar site. Mesoscale precipitating clouds developed due to warm-moist airmass transport from the typhoon, and passed over the MU radar site with easterly or southeasterly winds. We primarily present the wind behaviour including the vertical component which a conventional meteorological Doppler radar cannot directly observe, and discuss the relationship between the wind behaviour of the typhoon and the precipitating system. To investigate the dynamic structure of the typhoon, the observed wind was divided into radial and tangential wind components under the assumption that the typhoon had an axi-symmetric structure. Altitude range of outflow ascended from 1–3 km to 2–10 km with increasing distance (within 80–260 km range from the typhoon center, and in-flow was observed above and below the outflow. Outflow and inflow were associated with updraft and downdraft, respectively. In the tangential wind, the maximum speed of counterclockwise winds was confirmed at 1–2 km altitudes. Based on the vertical velocity and the reflectivity obtained with the MU radar and the C-band meteorological radar, respectively, precipitating clouds, accompanied by the wind behaviour of the typhoon, were classified into stratiform and convective precipitating clouds. In the stratiform precipitating clouds, a vertical shear of radial wind and the maximum speed of counterclockwise wind were observed. There was a strong reflectivity layer called a ‘bright band’ around the 4.2 km altitude. We confirmed strong updrafts and down-drafts below and above it, respectively, and the existence of a relatively dry layer around the bright band level from radiosonde

  19. Typhoon 9707 observations with the MU radar and L-band boundary layer radar

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Teshiba

    Full Text Available Typhoon 9707 (Opal was observed with the VHF-band Middle and Upper atmosphere (MU radar, an L-band boundary layer radar (BLR, and a vertical-pointing C-band meteorological radar at the Shigaraki MU Observatory in Shiga prefecture, Japan on 20 June 1997. The typhoon center passed about 80 km southeast from the radar site. Mesoscale precipitating clouds developed due to warm-moist airmass transport from the typhoon, and passed over the MU radar site with easterly or southeasterly winds. We primarily present the wind behaviour including the vertical component which a conventional meteorological Doppler radar cannot directly observe, and discuss the relationship between the wind behaviour of the typhoon and the precipitating system. To investigate the dynamic structure of the typhoon, the observed wind was divided into radial and tangential wind components under the assumption that the typhoon had an axi-symmetric structure. Altitude range of outflow ascended from 1–3 km to 2–10 km with increasing distance (within 80–260 km range from the typhoon center, and in-flow was observed above and below the outflow. Outflow and inflow were associated with updraft and downdraft, respectively. In the tangential wind, the maximum speed of counterclockwise winds was confirmed at 1–2 km altitudes. Based on the vertical velocity and the reflectivity obtained with the MU radar and the C-band meteorological radar, respectively, precipitating clouds, accompanied by the wind behaviour of the typhoon, were classified into stratiform and convective precipitating clouds. In the stratiform precipitating clouds, a vertical shear of radial wind and the maximum speed of counterclockwise wind were observed. There was a strong reflectivity layer called a ‘bright band’ around the 4.2 km altitude. We confirmed strong updrafts and down-drafts below and above it, respectively, and the existence of a relatively dry layer around the bright band level from radiosonde

  20. Radar observations of Mercury

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Harmon, J.K.; Campbell, D.B.

    1988-01-01

    Some of the radar altimetry profiles of Mercury obtained on the basis of data from the Arecibo Observatory are presented. In these measurements, the delay-Doppler method was used to measure altitudes along the Doppler equator, rather than to map radar reflectivity. The profiles, derived from observations made over a 6-yr period, provide extensive coverage over a restricted equatorial band and permit the identification of radar signatures for features as small as 50-km diameter craters and 1-km-high arcuate scarps. The data allowed identification of large-scale topographic features such as smooth plains subsidence zones and major highland regions

  1. Experiment for buried pipes by stepped FM-CW radar; Step shiki FM-CW radar ni yoru maisetsukan tansa jikken

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Suzuki, K.; Ito, M. [Kawasaki Geological Engineering, Co. Ltd., Tokyo (Japan); Tanabe, K. [Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, Tokyo (Japan)

    1997-05-27

    The underground radar exploration is adopted to surveys of cavity under the road and buried pipes since the result of high resolution is obtained. However, the explorative depth of the radar is shallow, 2-3m in soil basement, and its applicable field has been limited. The continuous wave radar (FM-CW radar) was devised to get deeper explorative depth, but has been used for the geological structure survey such as the fault survey since it is lower in resolution as compared with the pulse radar. Therefore, to make use of characteristics of the continuous wave radar and enhance resolution in the shallow part, an experiment on buried pipes was conducted for the purpose of assessing and improving the FM-CW radar. In this processing, the wave form treatment used in the reflection method seismic survey was adopted for the radar survey. There are some problems, but it is effective to adopt the same algorithm to that used in the seismic survey to the radar exploration. The explorative depth was discussed from the damping rate of electromagnetic waves and dynamic range of facilities of the experimental site, and 7m was obtained. 5 figs., 1 tab.

  2. Sea Ice Movements from Synthetic Aperture Radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    1981-12-01

    correlating these components. B-l8 These correlations are also plotted in figure l1. 5.3.3.2 AUlications of the space correlation. The spatial...aperture radar. To appear in J. of Geophys. Res. Hastings, A. D. Jr., 1971. Surface climate of the Arctic Basin. Report ETL- TR-71-5, Earth Sciences Division...Administration Grant NA50-AA-D-00015, which was funded in part by the Global Atmospheric Research Program and the Office of Climate Dynarics, Divisic

  3. Robust obstacle detection for unmanned surface vehicles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qin, Yueming; Zhang, Xiuzhi

    2018-03-01

    Obstacle detection is of essential importance for Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USV). Although some obstacles (e.g., ships, islands) can be detected by Radar, there are many other obstacles (e.g., floating pieces of woods, swimmers) which are difficult to be detected via Radar because these obstacles have low radar cross section. Therefore, detecting obstacle from images taken onboard is an effective supplement. In this paper, a robust vision-based obstacle detection method for USVs is developed. The proposed method employs the monocular image sequence captured by the camera on the USVs and detects obstacles on the sea surface from the image sequence. The experiment results show that the proposed scheme is efficient to fulfill the obstacle detection task.

  4. Radar reflection off extensive air showers

    CERN Document Server

    Stasielak, J; Bertaina, M; Blümer, J; Chiavassa, A; Engel, R; Haungs, A; Huege, T; Kampert, K -H; Klages, H; Kleifges, M; Krömer, O; Ludwig, M; Mathys, S; Neunteufel, P; Pekala, J; Rautenberg, J; Riegel, M; Roth, M; Salamida, F; Schieler, H; Šmída, R; Unger, M; Weber, M; Werner, F; Wilczyński, H; Wochele, J

    2012-01-01

    We investigate the possibility of detecting extensive air showers by the radar technique. Considering a bistatic radar system and different shower geometries, we simulate reflection of radio waves off the static plasma produced by the shower in the air. Using the Thomson cross-section for radio wave reflection, we obtain the time evolution of the signal received by the antennas. The frequency upshift of the radar echo and the power received are studied to verify the feasibility of the radar detection technique.

  5. Estimating radar reflectivity - snowfall rate relationships and their uncertainties over Antarctica by combining disdrometer and radar observations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Souverijns, Niels; Gossart, Alexandra; Lhermitte, Stef; Gorodetskaya, Irina; Kneifel, Stefan; Maahn, Maximilian; Bliven, Francis; van Lipzig, Nicole

    2017-04-01

    The Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) is the largest ice body on earth, having a volume equivalent to 58.3 m global mean sea level rise. Precipitation is the dominant source term in the surface mass balance of the AIS. However, this quantity is not well constrained in both models and observations. Direct observations over the AIS are also not coherent, as they are sparse in space and time and acquisition techniques differ. As a result, precipitation observations stay mostly limited to continent-wide averages based on satellite radar observations. Snowfall rate (SR) at high temporal resolution can be derived from the ground-based radar effective reflectivity factor (Z) using information about snow particle size and shape. Here we present reflectivity snowfall rate relations (Z = aSRb) for the East Antarctic escarpment region using the measurements at the Princess Elisabeth (PE) station and an overview of their uncertainties. A novel technique is developed by combining an optical disdrometer (NASA's Precipitation Imaging Package; PIP) and a vertically pointing 24 GHz FMCW micro rain radar (Metek's MRR) in order to reduce the uncertainty in SR estimates. PIP is used to obtain information about snow particle characteristics and to get an estimate of Z, SR and the Z-SR relation. For PE, located 173 km inland, the relation equals Z = 18SR1.1. The prefactor (a) of the relation is sensitive to the median diameter of the particles. Larger particles, found closer to the coast, lead to an increase of the value of the prefactor. More inland locations, where smaller snow particles are found, obtain lower values for the prefactor. The exponent of the Z-SR relation (b) is insensitive to the median diameter of the snow particles. This dependence of the prefactor of the Z-SR relation to the particle size needs to be taken into account when converting radar reflectivities to snowfall rates over Antarctica. The uncertainty on the Z-SR relations is quantified using a bootstrapping approach

  6. Investigations on the sensitivity of a stepped-frequency radar utilizing a vector network analyzer for Ground Penetrating Radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seyfried, Daniel; Schubert, Karsten; Schoebel, Joerg

    2014-12-01

    Employing a continuous-wave radar system, with the stepped-frequency radar being one type of this class, all reflections from the environment are present continuously and simultaneously at the receiver. Utilizing such a radar system for Ground Penetrating Radar purposes, antenna cross-talk and ground bounce reflection form an overall dominant signal contribution while reflections from objects buried in the ground are of quite weak amplitude due to attenuation in the ground. This requires a large dynamic range of the receiver which in turn requires high sensitivity of the radar system. In this paper we analyze the sensitivity of our vector network analyzer utilized as stepped-frequency radar system for GPR pipe detection. We furthermore investigate the performance of increasing the sensitivity of the radar by means of appropriate averaging and low-noise pre-amplification of the received signal. It turns out that the improvement in sensitivity actually achievable may differ significantly from theoretical expectations. In addition, we give a descriptive explanation why our appropriate experiments demonstrate that the sensitivity of the receiver is independent of the distance between the target object and the source of dominant signal contribution. Finally, our investigations presented in this paper lead to a preferred setting of operation for our vector network analyzer in order to achieve best detection capability for weak reflection amplitudes, hence making the radar system applicable for Ground Penetrating Radar purposes.

  7. Detecting and classifying low probability of intercept radar

    CERN Document Server

    Pace, Philip E

    2008-01-01

    This revised and expanded second edition brings you to the cutting edge with new chapters on LPI radar design, including over-the-horizon radar, random noise radar, and netted LPI radar. You also discover critical LPI detection techniques, parameter extraction signal processing techniques, and anti-radiation missile design strategies to counter LPI radar.

  8. Radar probing of the auroral plasma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brekke, A.

    1977-01-01

    The European Incoherent Scatter Radar in the Auroral Zone (EISCAT) is an intereuropean organization planning to install an incoherent scatter radar system in Northern Scandinavia. It is supported by Finland, France, Norway, Great Britain, Sweden and West Germany, and its headquarters is in Kiruna, Sweden. The radar is planned to be operating in 1979. In order to introduce students and young scientists to the incoherent scatter radar technique, a summer school was held in Tromsoe, from 5th to 13th June 1975. In these proceedings an introduction to the basic theory of fluctuations in a plasma is given. Some of the present incoherent scatter radars now in use are presented and special considerations with respect to the planned EISACT facility are discussed. Reviews of some recent results and scientific problems relevant to EISCAT are also presented and finally a presentation of some observational techniques complementary to incoherent scatter radars is included. (Ed.)

  9. X-Band wave radar system for monitoring and risk management of the coastal infrastructures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ludeno, Giovanni; Soldovieri, Francesco; Serafino, Francesco

    2017-04-01

    The presence of the infrastructures in coastal region entails an increase of the sea level and the shift of the sediment on the bottom with a continuous change of the coastline. In order to preserve the coastline, it has been necessary to resort the use of applications coastal engineering, as the construction of the breakwaters for preventing the coastal erosion. In this frame, the knowledge of the sea state parameters, as wavelength, period and significant wave height and of surface current and bathymetry can be used for the harbor operations and to prevent environmental disasters. In the last years, the study of the coastal phenomena and monitoring of the sea waves impact on the coastal infrastructures through the analysis of images acquired by marine X-band radars is of great interest [1-3]. The possibility to observe the sea surface from radar images is due to the fact that the X-band electromagnetic waves interact with the sea capillary waves (Bragg resonance), which ride on the gravity waves. However, the image acquired by a X-band radar is not the direct representation of the sea state, but it represents the sea surface as seen by the radar. Accordingly, to estimate the sea state parameters as, direction, wavelength, period of dominant waves, the significant wave height as well as the bathymetry and surface current, through a time stack of radar data are required advanced data processing procedures. In particular, in the coastal areas due to the non-uniformity of sea surface current and bathymetry fields is necessary a local analysis of the sea state parameters. In order to analyze the data acquired in coastal area an inversion procedure defined "Local Method" is adopted, which is based on the spatial partitioning of the investigated area in partially overlapping sub-areas. In addition, the analysis of the sea spectrum of each sub-area allows us to retrieve the local sea state parameters. In particular, this local analysis allows us to detect the reflected

  10. Bayesian methods in the search for MH370

    CERN Document Server

    Davey, Sam; Holland, Ian; Rutten, Mark; Williams, Jason

    2016-01-01

    This book demonstrates how nonlinear/non-Gaussian Bayesian time series estimation methods were used to produce a probability distribution of potential MH370 flight paths. It provides details of how the probabilistic models of aircraft flight dynamics, satellite communication system measurements, environmental effects and radar data were constructed and calibrated. The probability distribution was used to define the search zone in the southern Indian Ocean. The book describes particle-filter based numerical calculation of the aircraft flight-path probability distribution and validates the method using data from several of the involved aircraft’s previous flights. Finally it is shown how the Reunion Island flaperon debris find affects the search probability distribution.

  11. Bistatic radar cross section of a perfectly conducting rhombus-shaped flat plate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fenn, Alan J.

    1990-05-01

    The bistatic radar cross section of a perfectly conducting flat plate that has a rhombus shape (equilateral parallelogram) is investigated. The Ohio State University electromagnetic surface patch code (ESP version 4) is used to compute the theoretical bistatic radar cross section of a 35- x 27-in rhombus plate at 1.3 GHz over the bistatic angles 15 deg to 142 deg. The ESP-4 computer code is a method of moments FORTRAN-77 program which can analyze general configurations of plates and wires. This code has been installed and modified at Lincoln Laboratory on a SUN 3 computer network. Details of the code modifications are described. Comparisons of the method of moments simulations and measurements of the rhombus plate are made. It is shown that the ESP-4 computer code provides a high degree of accuracy in the calculation of copolarized and cross-polarized bistatic radar cross section patterns.

  12. Method for radar detection of persons wearing wires

    OpenAIRE

    Fox, William P.

    2014-01-01

    8,730,098 B1 Methods are described for radar detection of persons wearing wires using radar spectra data including the vertical polarization (VV) radar cross section and the horizontal polarization (HH) radar cross section for a person. In one embodiment, the ratio of the vertical polarization (VV) radar cross section to the horizontal polarization (HH) radar cross section for a person is compared to a detection threshold to determine whether the person is wearing wire...

  13. Phased-array radars

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brookner, E.

    1985-02-01

    The operating principles, technology, and applications of phased-array radars are reviewed and illustrated with diagrams and photographs. Consideration is given to the antenna elements, circuitry for time delays, phase shifters, pulse coding and compression, and hybrid radars combining phased arrays with lenses to alter the beam characteristics. The capabilities and typical hardware of phased arrays are shown using the US military systems COBRA DANE and PAVE PAWS as examples.

  14. Downhole pulse radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chang, Hsi-Tien

    1987-09-28

    A borehole logging tool generates a fast rise-time, short duration, high peak-power radar pulse having broad energy distribution between 30 MHz and 300 MHz through a directional transmitting and receiving antennas having barium titanate in the electromagnetically active region to reduce the wavelength to within an order of magnitude of the diameter of the antenna. Radar returns from geological discontinuities are sampled for transmission uphole. 7 figs.

  15. Radar reflection off extensive air showers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Werner F.

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available We investigate the possibility of detecting extensive air showers by the radar technique. Considering a bistatic radar system and different shower geometries, we simulate reflection of radio waves off the static plasma produced by the shower in the air. Using the Thomson cross-section for radio wave reflection, we obtain the time evolution of the signal received by the antennas. The frequency upshift of the radar echo and the power received are studied to verify the feasibility of the radar detection technique.

  16. Search Parameter Optimization for Discrete, Bayesian, and Continuous Search Algorithms

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-09-01

    NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA THESIS SEARCH PARAMETER OPTIMIZATION FOR DISCRETE , BAYESIAN, AND CONTINUOUS SEARCH ALGORITHMS by...to 09-22-2017 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE SEARCH PARAMETER OPTIMIZATION FOR DISCRETE , BAYESIAN, AND CON- TINUOUS SEARCH ALGORITHMS 5. FUNDING NUMBERS 6...simple search and rescue acts to prosecuting aerial/surface/submersible targets on mission. This research looks at varying the known discrete and

  17. Millimeter wave radars raise weapon IQ

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lerner, E. J.

    1985-02-01

    The problems encountered by laser and IR homing devices for guided munitions may be tractable with warhead-mounted mm-wave radars. Operating at about 100 GHz and having several kilometers range, mm-wave radars see through darkness, fog, rain and smoke. The radar must be coupled with an analyzer that discerns moving and stationary targets and higher priority targets. The target lock-on can include shut-off of the transmitter and reception of naturally-generated mm-waves bouncing off the target when in the terminal phase of the flight. Monopulse transmitters have simplified the radar design, although mass production of finline small radar units has yet to be accomplished, particularly in combining GaAs, ferrites and other materials on one monolithic chip.

  18. Statistics-based optimization of the polarimetric radar hydrometeor classification algorithm and its application for a squall line in South China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Chong; Liu, Liping; Wei, Ming; Xi, Baozhu; Yu, Minghui

    2018-03-01

    A modified hydrometeor classification algorithm (HCA) is developed in this study for Chinese polarimetric radars. This algorithm is based on the U.S. operational HCA. Meanwhile, the methodology of statistics-based optimization is proposed including calibration checking, datasets selection, membership functions modification, computation thresholds modification, and effect verification. Zhuhai radar, the first operational polarimetric radar in South China, applies these procedures. The systematic bias of calibration is corrected, the reliability of radar measurements deteriorates when the signal-to-noise ratio is low, and correlation coefficient within the melting layer is usually lower than that of the U.S. WSR-88D radar. Through modification based on statistical analysis of polarimetric variables, the localized HCA especially for Zhuhai is obtained, and it performs well over a one-month test through comparison with sounding and surface observations. The algorithm is then utilized for analysis of a squall line process on 11 May 2014 and is found to provide reasonable details with respect to horizontal and vertical structures, and the HCA results—especially in the mixed rain-hail region—can reflect the life cycle of the squall line. In addition, the kinematic and microphysical processes of cloud evolution and the differences between radar-detected hail and surface observations are also analyzed. The results of this study provide evidence for the improvement of this HCA developed specifically for China.

  19. Technological monitoring radar: a weak signals interpretation tool for the identification of strategic surprises

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adalton Ozaki

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available In the current competitive scenario, marked by rapid and constant changes, it is vital that companies actively monitor the business environment, in search of signs which might anticipate changes. This study poses to propose and discuss a tool called Technological Monitoring Radar, which endeavours to address the following query: “How can a company systematically monitor the environment and capture signs that anticipate opportunities and threats concerning a particular technology?”. The literature review covers Competitive Intelligence, Technological Intelligence, Environmental Analysis and Anticipative Monitoring. Based on the critical analysis of the literature, a tool called Technological Monitoring Radar is proposed comprising five environments to be monitored (political, economical, technological, social and competition each of which with key topics for analysis. To exemplify the use of the tool, it is applied to the smartphone segment in an exclusively reflexive manner, and without the participation of a specific company. One of the suggestions for future research is precisely the application of the proposed methodology in an actual company. Despite the limitation of this being a theoretical study, the example demonstrated the tool´s applicability. The radar prove to be very useful for a company that needs to monitor the environment in search of signs of change. This study´s main contribution is to relate different fields of study (technological intelligence, environmental analysis and anticipative monitoring and different approaches to provide a practical tool that allows a manager to identify and better visualize opportunities and threats, thus avoiding strategic surprises in the technological arena.Key words: Technological monitoring. Technological intelligence. Competitive intelligence. Weak signals.

  20. ICUD-0471 Weather radar rainfall for design of urban storm water systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thorndahl, Søren Liedtke; Wright, D. B.; Nielsen, Jesper Ellerbæk

    2017-01-01

    Long continuous series of high-resolution radar rainfall series provides valuable information on spatial and temporal variability of rainfall, which can be used in design of urban drainage systems. In design of especially large drainage systems with complex flow patterns (and potentially surface ...

  1. Marine X-band Weather Radar Data Calibration

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thorndahl, Søren Liedtke; Rasmussen, Michael R.

    2012-01-01

    estimates. This paper presents some of the challenges in small marine X-band radar calibration by comparing three calibration procedures for assessing the relationship between radar and rain gauge data. Validation shows similar results for precipitation volumes but more diverse results on peak rain......Application of weather radar data in urban hydrology is evolving and radar data is now applied for both modelling, analysis, and real time control purposes. In these contexts, it is allimportant that the radar data is well calibrated and adjusted in order to obtain valid quantitative precipitation...

  2. Raindrop size distribution and radar reflectivity-rain rate relationships for radar hydrology

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Uijlenhoet, R.

    2001-01-01

    The conversion of the radar reflectivity factor Z (mm6m-3) to rain rate R (mm h-1) is a crucial step in the hydrological application of weather radar measurements. It has been common practice for over 50 years now to take for this conversion a simple power law relationship between Z and R. It is the

  3. 5 year radar-based rainfall statistics: disturbances analysis and development of a post-correction scheme for the German radar composite

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wagner, A.; Seltmann, J.; Kunstmann, H.

    2015-02-01

    A radar-based rainfall statistic demands high quality data that provide realistic precipitation amounts in space and time. Instead of correcting single radar images, we developed a post-correction scheme for long-term composite radar data that corrects corrupted areas, but preserves the original precipitation patterns. The post-correction scheme is based on a 5 year statistical analysis of radar composite data and its constituents. The accumulation of radar images reveals artificial effects that are not visible in the individual radar images. Some of them are already inherent to single radar data such as the effect of increasing beam height, beam blockage or clutter remnants. More artificial effects are introduced in the process of compositing such as sharp gradients at the boundaries of overlapping areas due to different beam heights and resolution. The cause of these disturbances, their behaviour with respect to reflectivity level, season or altitude is analysed based on time-series of two radar products: the single radar reflectivity product PX for each of the 16 radar systems of the German Meteorological Service (DWD) for the time span 2000 to 2006 and the radar composite product RX of DWD from 2005 through to 2009. These statistics result in additional quality information on radar data that is not available elsewhere. The resulting robust characteristics of disturbances, e.g. the dependency of the frequencies of occurrence of radar reflectivities on beam height, are then used as a basis for the post-correction algorithm. The scheme comprises corrections for shading effects and speckles, such as clutter remnants or overfiltering, as well as for systematic differences in frequencies of occurrence of radar reflectivities between the near and the far ranges of individual radar sites. An adjustment to rain gauges is also included. Applying this correction, the Root-Mean-Square-Error for the comparison of radar derived annual rain amounts with rain gauge data

  4. Effects of near surface soil moisture profiles during evaporation on far-field ground-penetrating radar data: A numerical study

    KAUST Repository

    Moghadas, Davood

    2013-01-01

    We theoretically investigated the effect of vapor flow on the drying front that develops in soils when water evaporates from the soil surface and on GPR data. The results suggest the integration of the full-wave GPR model with a coupled water, vapor, and heat flow model to accurately estimate the soil hydraulic properties. We investigated the Effects of a drying front that emerges below an evaporating soil surface on the far-field ground-penetrating radar (GPR) data. First, we performed an analysis of the width of the drying front in soils with 12 different textures by using an analytical model. Then, we numerically simulated vertical soil moisture profiles that develop during evaporation for the soil textures. We performed the simulations using a Richards flow model that considers only liquid water flow and a model that considers coupled water, vapor, and heat flows. The GPR signals were then generated from the simulated soil water content profiles taking into account the frequency dependency of apparent electrical conductivity and dielectric permittivity. The analytical approach indicated that the width of the drying front at the end of Stage I of the evaporation was larger in silty soils than in other soil textures and smaller in sandy soils. We also demonstrated that the analytical estimate of the width of the drying front can be considered as a proxy for the impact that a drying front could have on far-field GPR data. The numerical simulations led to the conclusion that vapor transport in soil resulted in S-shaped soil moisture profiles, which clearly influenced the GPR data. As a result, vapor flow needs to be considered when GPR data are interpreted in a coupled inversion approach. Moreover, the impact of vapor flow on the GPR data was larger for silty than for sandy soils. These Effects on the GPR data provide promising perspectives regarding the use of radars for evaporation monitoring. © Soil Science Society of America 5585 Guilford Rd., Madison, WI

  5. High Resolution 3D Radar Imaging of Comet Interiors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Asphaug, E. I.; Gim, Y.; Belton, M.; Brophy, J.; Weissman, P. R.; Heggy, E.

    2012-12-01

    images of interior structure to ~20 m, and to map dielectric properties (related to internal composition) to better than 200 m throughout. This is comparable in detail to modern 3D medical ultrasound, although we emphasize that the techniques are somewhat different. An interior mass distribution is obtained through spacecraft tracking, using data acquired during the close, quiet radar orbits. This is aligned with the radar-based images of the interior, and the shape model, to contribute to the multi-dimensional 3D global view. High-resolution visible imaging provides boundary conditions and geologic context to these interior views. An infrared spectroscopy and imaging campaign upon arrival reveals the time-evolving activity of the nucleus and the structure and composition of the inner coma, and the definition of surface units. CORE is designed to obtain a total view of a comet, from the coma to the active and evolving surface to the deep interior. Its primary science goal is to obtain clear images of internal structure and dielectric composition. These will reveal how the comet was formed, what it is made of, and how it 'works'. By making global yet detailed connections from interior to exterior, this knowledge will be an important complement to the Rosetta mission, and will lay the foundation for comet nucleus sample return by revealing the areas of shallow depth to 'bedrock', and relating accessible deposits to their originating provenances within the nucleus.

  6. Low-Cost Mini Radar: Design Prototyping and Tests

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dario Tarchi

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Radar systems are largely employed for surveillance of wide and remote areas; the recent advent of drones gives the opportunity to exploit radar sensors on board of unmanned aerial platforms. Nevertheless, whereas drone radars are currently available for military applications, their employment in the civilian domain is still limited. The present research focuses on design, prototyping, and testing of an agile, low-cost, mini radar system, to be carried on board of Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPAs or tethered aerostats. In particular, the paper faces the challenge to integrate the in-house developed radar sensor with a low-cost navigation board, which is used to estimate attitude and positioning data. In fact, a suitable synchronization between radar and navigation data is essential to properly reconstruct the radar picture whenever the platform is moving or the radar is scanning different azimuthal sectors. Preliminary results, relative to tests conducted in preoperational conditions, are provided and exploited to assert the suitable consistency of the obtained radar pictures. From the results, there is a high consistency between the radar images and the picture of the current environment emerges; finally, the comparison of radar images obtained in different scans shows the stability of the platform.

  7. Radar signal analysis and processing using Matlab

    CERN Document Server

    Mahafza, Bassem R

    2008-01-01

    Offering radar-related software for the analysis and design of radar waveform and signal processing, this book provides comprehensive coverage of radar signals and signal processing techniques and algorithms. It contains numerous graphical plots, common radar-related functions, table format outputs, and end-of-chapter problems. The complete set of MATLAB[registered] functions and routines are available for download online.

  8. VenSAR on EnVision: Taking earth observation radar to Venus

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ghail, Richard C.; Hall, David; Mason, Philippa J.; Herrick, Robert R.; Carter, Lynn M.; Williams, Ed

    2018-02-01

    Venus should be the most Earth-like of all our planetary neighbours: its size, bulk composition and distance from the Sun are very similar to those of Earth. How and why did it all go wrong for Venus? What lessons can be learned about the life story of terrestrial planets in general, in this era of discovery of Earth-like exoplanets? Were the radically different evolutionary paths of Earth and Venus driven solely by distance from the Sun, or do internal dynamics, geological activity, volcanic outgassing and weathering also play an important part? EnVision is a proposed ESA Medium class mission designed to take Earth Observation technology to Venus to measure its current rate of geological activity, determine its geological history, and the origin and maintenance of its hostile atmosphere, to understand how Venus and Earth could have evolved so differently. EnVision will carry three instruments: the Venus Emission Mapper (VEM); the Subsurface Radar Sounder (SRS); and VenSAR, a world-leading European phased array synthetic aperture radar that is the subject of this article. VenSAR will obtain images at a range of spatial resolutions from 30 m regional coverage to 1 m images of selected areas; an improvement of two orders of magnitude on Magellan images; measure topography at 15 m resolution vertical and 60 m spatially from stereo and InSAR data; detect cm-scale change through differential InSAR, to characterise volcanic and tectonic activity, and estimate rates of weathering and surface alteration; and characterise of surface mechanical properties and weathering through multi-polar radar data. These data will be directly comparable with Earth Observation radar data, giving geoscientists unique access to an Earth-sized planet that has evolved on a radically different path to our own, offering new insights on the Earth-sized exoplanets across the galaxy.

  9. Radar efficiency and the calculation of decade-long PMSE backscatter cross-section for the Resolute Bay VHF radar

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N. Swarnalingam

    2009-04-01

    Full Text Available The Resolute Bay VHF radar, located in Nunavut, Canada (75.0° N, 95.0° W and operating at 51.5 MHz, has been used to investigate Polar Mesosphere Summer Echoes (PMSE since 1997. PMSE are a unique form of strong coherent radar echoes, and their understanding has been a challenge to the scientific community since their discovery more than three decades ago. While other high latitude radars have recorded strong levels of PMSE activities, the Resolute Bay radar has observed relatively lower levels of PMSE strengths. In order to derive absolute measurements of PMSE strength at this site, a technique is developed to determine the radar efficiency using cosmic (sky noise variations along with the help of a calibrated noise source. VHF radars are only rarely calibrated, but determination of efficiency is even less common. Here we emphasize the importance of efficiency for determination of cross-section measurements. The significant advantage of this method is that it can be directly applied to any MST radar system anywhere in the world as long as the sky noise variations are known. The radar efficiencies for two on-site radars at Resolute Bay are determined. PMSE backscatter cross-section is estimated, and decade-long PMSE strength variations at this location are investigated. It was noticed that the median of the backscatter cross-section distribution remains relatively unchanged, but over the years a great level of variability occurs in the high power tail of the distribution.

  10. Wind farm radar study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Davies, N.G.

    1995-01-01

    This report examines the possible degradations of radar performance that may be caused by the presence of a wind turbine generator within the radar coverage area. A brief literature survey reviews the previously published work, which is mainly concerned with degradation of broadcast TV reception. Estimates are made of wind turbine generator scattering cross-sections, and of the time and Doppler characteristics of the echo signals from representative wind turbine generator. The general characteristics of radar detection and tracking methods are described, and the behaviour of such systems in the presence of strong returns from a wind turbine generator (or an array of them) is discussed. (author)

  11. Radar techniques using array antennas

    CERN Document Server

    Wirth, Wulf-Dieter

    2013-01-01

    Radar Techniques Using Array Antennas is a thorough introduction to the possibilities of radar technology based on electronic steerable and active array antennas. Topics covered include array signal processing, array calibration, adaptive digital beamforming, adaptive monopulse, superresolution, pulse compression, sequential detection, target detection with long pulse series, space-time adaptive processing (STAP), moving target detection using synthetic aperture radar (SAR), target imaging, energy management and system parameter relations. The discussed methods are confirmed by simulation stud

  12. New look at radar auroral motions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Greenwald, R.A.; Ecklund, W.L.

    1975-01-01

    During October 1974, three modifications were temporarily added to the NOAA radar auroral backscatter facility located at Anchorage, Alaska. These modifications included (1) a multiple azimuth antenna system. (2) an on-line computer for processing amplitude and mean Doppler profiles of the radar backscatter, and (3) a 13-baud Barker coder. In combination with the radar these modifications provided data relevant to understanding both the microscopic and the macroscopic nature of the radar aurora. Appreciable structure was often found in the Doppler velocity profiles of radar auroral irregularities. Doppler velocities of nearly 2000 m/s were observed. By combining scatter amplitude profiles and mean Doppler profiles from the five azimuths we have produced contour maps of the scatter intensity and the Doppler velocity. The scatter intensity maps often indicate appreciable temporal and spatial structure in the radar auroral irregularities, corroborating the results of Tsunoda et al. (1974). The mean Doppler contour maps indicate that there is also appreciable temporal and spatial structure in the flow velocities of radar auroral irregularities. At those times when there appears to be large-scale uniformity in the irregularity flow, the Doppler velocity varies with azimuth in a manner that is consistent with a cosine-dependent azimuthal variation

  13. Investigating the backscatter contrast anomaly in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery of the dunes along the Israel-Egypt border

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rozenstein, Offer; Siegal, Zehava; Blumberg, Dan G.; Adamowski, Jan

    2016-04-01

    The dune field intersected by the Israel-Egypt borderline has attracted many remote sensing studies over the years because it exhibits unique optical phenomena in several domains, from the visual to the thermal infrared. These phenomena are the result of land-use policies implemented by the two countries, which have differing effects on the two ecosystems. This study explores the surface properties that affect radar backscatter, namely the surface roughness and dielectric properties, in order to determine the cause for the variation across the border. The backscatter contrast was demonstrated for SIR-C, the first synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensor to capture this phenomenon, as well as ASAR imagery that coincides with complementary ground observations. These field observations along the border, together with an aerial image from the same year as the SIR-C acquisition were used to analyze differences in vegetation patterns that can affect the surface roughness. The dielectric permittivity of two kinds of topsoil (sand, biocrust) was measured in the field and in the laboratory. The results suggest that the vegetation structure and spatial distribution differ between the two sides of the border in a manner that is consistent with the radar observations. The dielectric permittivity of sand and biocrust was found to be similar, although they are not constant across the radar spectral region (50 MHz-20 GHz). These findings support the hypothesis that changes to the vegetation, as a consequence of the different land-use practices in Israel and Egypt, are the cause for the radar backscatter contrast across the border.

  14. Investigation of Underground Hydrocarbon Leakage using Ground Penetrating Radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Srigutomo, Wahyu; Trimadona; Agustine, Eleonora

    2016-08-01

    Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey was carried out in several petroleum plants to investigate hydrocarbon contamination beneath the surface. The hydrocarbon spills are generally recognized as Light Non-Aqueous Phase Liquids (LNAPL) if the plume of leakage is distributed in the capillary fringe above the water table and as Dense Non-Aqueous Phase Liquids (DNAPL) if it is below the water table. GPR antennas of 200 MHz and 400 MHz were deployed to obtain clear radargrams until 4 m deep. In general, the interpreted radargram sections indicate the presence of surface concrete layer, the compacted silty soill followed by sand layer and the original clayey soil as well as the water table. The presence of hydrocarbon plumes are identified as shadow zones (radar velocity and intensity contrasts) in the radargram that blur the layering pattern with different intensity of reflected signal. Based on our results, the characteristic of the shadow zones in the radargram is controlled by several factors: types of hydrocarbon (fresh or bio-degraded), water moisture in the soil, and clay content which contribute variation in electrical conductivity and dielectric constants of the soil.

  15. Hydrologic applications of weather radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seo, Dong-Jun; Habib, Emad; Andrieu, Hervé; Morin, Efrat

    2015-12-01

    By providing high-resolution quantitative precipitation information (QPI), weather radars have revolutionized hydrology in the last two decades. With the aid of GIS technology, radar-based quantitative precipitation estimates (QPE) have enabled routine high-resolution hydrologic modeling in many parts of the world. Given the ever-increasing need for higher-resolution hydrologic and water resources information for a wide range of applications, one may expect that the use of weather radar will only grow. Despite the tremendous progress, a number of significant scientific, technological and engineering challenges remain to realize its potential. New challenges are also emerging as new areas of applications are discovered, explored and pursued. The purpose of this special issue is to provide the readership with some of the latest advances, lessons learned, experiences gained, and science issues and challenges related to hydrologic applications of weather radar. The special issue features 20 contributions on various topics which reflect the increasing diversity as well as the areas of focus in radar hydrology today. The contributions may be grouped as follows:

  16. An enhanced Planetary Radar Operating Centre (PROC)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Catallo, C.

    2010-12-01

    Planetary exploration by means of radar systems, mainly using GPRs is an important role of Italy and numerous scientific international space programs are carried out jointly with ESA and NASA by Italian Space Agency, the scientific community and the industry. Three experiments under Italian leadership ( designed and manufactured by the Italian industry) provided by ASI within a NASA/ESA/ASI joint venture framework are successfully operating: MARSIS on-board MEX, SHARAD on-board MRO and CASSINI Radar on-board Cassini spacecraft: the missions have been further extended . Three dedicated operational centers, namely SHOC, (Sharad Operating Centre), MOC (Marsis Operating Center) and CASSINI PAD are operating from the missions beginning to support all the scientific communities, institutional customers and experiment teams operation Each center is dedicated to a single instrument management and control, data processing and distribution and even if they had been conceived to operate autonomously and independently one from each other, synergies and overlaps have been envisaged leading to the suggestion of a unified center, the Planetary Radar Processing Center (PROC). In order to harmonize operations either from logistics point of view and from HW/SW capabilities point of view PROC is designed and developed for offering improved functionalities to increase capabilities, mainly in terms of data exchange, comparison, interpretation and exploitation. PROC is, therefore, conceived as the Italian support facility to the scientific community for on-going and future Italian planetary exploration programs, such as Europa-Jupiter System Mission (EJSM) The paper describes how the new PROC is designed and developed, to allow SHOC, MOC and CASSINI PAD to operate as before, and to offer improved functionalities to increase capabilities, mainly in terms of data exchange, comparison, interpretation and exploitation aiding scientists to increase their knowledge in the field of surface

  17. Classification of radar echoes using fractal geometry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Azzaz, Nafissa; Haddad, Boualem

    2017-01-01

    Highlights: • Implementation of two concepts of fractal geometry to classify two types of meteorological radar echoes. • A new approach, called a multi-scale fractal dimension is used for classification between fixed echoes and rain echoes. • An Automatic identification system of meteorological radar echoes was proposed using fractal geometry. - Abstract: This paper deals with the discrimination between the precipitation echoes and the ground echoes in meteorological radar images using fractal geometry. This study aims to improve the measurement of precipitations by weather radars. For this, we considered three radar sites: Bordeaux (France), Dakar (Senegal) and Me lbourne (USA). We showed that the fractal dimension based on contourlet and the fractal lacunarity are pertinent to discriminate between ground and precipitation echoes. We also demonstrated that the ground echoes have a multifractal structure but the precipitations are more homogeneous than ground echoes whatever the prevailing climate. Thereby, we developed an automatic classification system of radar using a graphic interface. This interface, based on the fractal geometry makes possible the identification of radar echoes type in real time. This system can be inserted in weather radar for the improvement of precipitation estimations.

  18. MST radar data-base management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wickwar, V. B.

    1983-01-01

    Data management for Mesospheric-Stratospheric-Tropospheric, (MST) radars is addressed. An incoherent-scatter radar data base is discussed in terms of purpose, centralization, scope, and nature of the data base management system.

  19. Stepped-frequency radar sensors theory, analysis and design

    CERN Document Server

    Nguyen, Cam

    2016-01-01

    This book presents the theory, analysis and design of microwave stepped-frequency radar sensors. Stepped-frequency radar sensors are attractive for various sensing applications that require fine resolution. The book consists of five chapters. The first chapter describes the fundamentals of radar sensors including applications followed by a review of ultra-wideband pulsed, frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW), and stepped-frequency radar sensors. The second chapter discusses a general analysis of radar sensors including wave propagation in media and scattering on targets, as well as the radar equation. The third chapter addresses the analysis of stepped-frequency radar sensors including their principles and design parameters. Chapter 4 presents the development of two stepped-frequency radar sensors at microwave and millimeter-wave frequencies based on microwave integrated circuits (MICs), microwave monolithic integrated circuits (MMICs) and printed-circuit antennas, and discusses their signal processing....

  20. Challenges in X-band Weather Radar Data Calibration

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thorndahl, Søren; Rasmussen, Michael R.

    2009-01-01

    Application of weather radar data in urban hydrology is evolving and radar data is now applied for both modelling, analysis and real time control purposes. In these contexts, it is all-important that the radar data well calibrated and adjusted in order to obtain valid quantitative precipitation e...... estimates. This paper compares two calibration procedures for a small marine X-band radar by comparing radar data with rain gauge data. Validation shows a very good consensus with regards to precipitation volumes, but more diverse results on peak rain intensities.......Application of weather radar data in urban hydrology is evolving and radar data is now applied for both modelling, analysis and real time control purposes. In these contexts, it is all-important that the radar data well calibrated and adjusted in order to obtain valid quantitative precipitation...

  1. Radar principles for the nonspecialist, 3rd edition

    CERN Document Server

    Toomay, John

    2004-01-01

    Radar Principles for the Non-specialist, Third Edition continues its popular tradition: to distill the very complex technology of radar into its fundamentals, tying them to the laws of nature on one end and to the most modern and complex systems on the other. It starts with electromagnetic propagation, describes a radar of the utmost simplicity, and derives the radar range equation from that simple radar. Once the range equation is available, the book attacks the meaning of each term in it, moving through antennas, detection and tracking, radar cross-section, waveforms andsignal proces

  2. European coordination for coastal HF radar data in EMODnet Physics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mader, Julien; Novellino, Antonio; Gorringe, Patrick; Griffa, Annalisa; Schulz-Stellenfleth, Johannes; Montero, Pedro; Montovani, Carlo; Ayensa, Garbi; Vila, Begoña; Rubio, Anna; Sagarminaga, Yolanda

    2015-04-01

    Historically, joint effort has been put on observing open ocean, organizing, homogenizing, sharing and reinforcing the impact of the acquired information based on one technology: ARGO with profilers Argo floats, EuroSites, ESONET-NoE, FixO3 for deep water platforms, Ferrybox for stations in ships of opportunities, and GROOM for the more recent gliders. This kind of networking creates synergies and makes easier the implementation of this source of data in the European Data exchange services like EMODnet, ROOSs portals, or any applied services in the Blue economy. One main targeted improvement in the second phase of EMODnet projects is the assembling of data along coastline. In that sense, further coordination is recommended between platform operators around a specific technology in order to make easier the implementation of the data in the platforms (4th EuroGOOS DATAMEQ WG). HF radar is today recognized internationally as a cost-effective solution to provide high spatial and temporal resolution current maps (depending on the instrument operation frequency, covering from a few kilometres offshore up to 200 km) that are needed for many applications for issues related to ocean surface drift or sea state characterization. Significant heterogeneity still exists in Europe concerning technological configurations, data processing, quality standards and data availability. This makes more difficult the development of a significant network for achieving the needed accessibility to HF Radar data for a pan European use. EuroGOOS took the initiative to lead and coordinate activities within the various observation platforms by establishing a number of Ocean Observing Task Teams such as HF-Radars. The purpose is to coordinate and join the technological, scientific and operational HF radar communities at European level. The goal of the group is on the harmonization of systems requirements, systems design, data quality, improvement and proof of the readiness and standardization of

  3. Exploring inner structure of Titan's dunes from Cassini Radar observations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharma, P.; Heggy, E.; Farr, T. G.

    2013-12-01

    Linear dunes discovered in the equatorial regions of Titan by the Cassini-Huygens mission are morphologically very similar to many terrestrial linear dune fields. These features have been compared with terrestrial longitudinal dune fields like the ones in Namib desert in western Africa. This comparison is based on the overall parallel orientation of Titan's dunes to the predominant wind direction on Titan, their superposition on other geomorphological features and the way they wrap around topographic obstacles. Studying the internal layering of dunes has strong implications in understanding the hypothesis for their origin and evolution. In Titan's case, although the morphology of the dunes has been studied from Cassini Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images, it has not been possible to investigate their internal structure in detail as of yet. Since no radar sounding data is available for studying Titan's subsurface yet, we have developed another technique to examine the inner layering of the dunes. In this study, we utilize multiple complementary radar datasets, including radar imaging data for Titan's and Earth's dunes and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR)/radar sounding data for terrestrial dunes. Based on dielectric mixing models, we suggest that the Cassini Ku-band microwaves should be able to penetrate up to ~ 3 m through Titan's dunes, indicating that the returned radar backscatter signal would include contributions from both surface and shallow subsurface echoes. This implies that the shallow subsurface properties can be retrieved from the observed radar backscatter (σ0). In our analysis, the variation of the radar backscatter as a function of dune height is used to provide an insight into the layering in Titan's dunes. We compare the variation of radar backscatter with elevation over individual dunes on Titan and analogous terrestrial dunes in three sites (Great Sand Sea, Siwa dunes and Qattaniya dunes) in the Egyptian Sahara. We observe a strong, positive

  4. Covert radar and signals interception the secret career of Eric Ackermann

    CERN Document Server

    Hayson, David

    2014-01-01

    Of German stock dating back to 1530 in Saxony, Eric George Ackermann GM was born on the Isle of Wight in 1919 and became a leading figure in the world of signals and electronic intelligence. As a Junior Scientific Officer at the Telecommunication Research Establishment, Boscombe Down, with an honorary commission in the Royal Air Force, he made numerous flights over occupied territory searching for, monitoring and destroying Germany's Wuerzburg, Knickebein and X Band radar systems. Much of his research was passed to the highest levels of wartime government, and was highly prized, ensuring that

  5. Ground-Penetrating-Radar Profiles of Interior Alaska Highways: Interpretation of Stratified Fill, Frost Depths, Water Table, and Thaw Settlement over Ice-Rich Permafrost

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-08-01

    along either massive ice surfaces or within sections of segregated ice. The uninsulated ice surface at Tok in Figure 17B is irregular. All of the...ER D C/ CR RE L TR -1 6- 14 ERDC’s Center-Directed Research Program Ground -Penetrating-Radar Profiles of Interior Alaska Highways...August 2016 Ground -Penetrating-Radar Profiles of Interior Alaska Highways Interpretation of Stratified Fill, Frost Depths, Water Table, and Thaw

  6. Principles of modern radar advanced techniques

    CERN Document Server

    Melvin, William

    2012-01-01

    Principles of Modern Radar: Advanced Techniques is a professional reference for practicing engineers that provides a stepping stone to advanced practice with in-depth discussions of the most commonly used advanced techniques for radar design. It will also serve advanced radar academic and training courses with a complete set of problems for students as well as solutions for instructors.

  7. A Dynamical System Approach to the Surface Search of Debris from MH370

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mancho, Ana M.; Garcia-Garrido, V. J.; Wiggins, S.; Mendoza, C.

    2015-11-01

    The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 on the morning of the 8th of March 2014 is one of the great mysteries of our time. One relevant aspect of this mystery is that not a single piece of debris from the aircraft was found during the intensive surface search carried out in the months following the crash. Difficulties in the search efforts, due to the uncertainty in the plane's final impact point and the time passed since the accident, brought the question on how the debris was scattered in an always moving ocean, for which there were multiple datasets that do not uniquely determined its state. Our approach to this problem is based on dynamical systems tools that identify dynamic barriers and coherent structures governing transport. By combining different ocean data with these mathematical techniques, we are able to assess the spatio-temporal state of the ocean in the priority search area at the time of impact and the following weeks. Using this information we propose a revised search strategy by showing why one might not have expected to find debris in some large search areas targeted by the search services and determining regions where one might have expected impact debris to be located and that have not been subjected to any exploration. This research has been supported by MINECO under grants MTM2014-56392-R and ICMAT Severo Ochoa project SEV-2011-0087 and ONR grant No. N00014- 01-1-0769. Computational support from CESGA is acknowledged.

  8. San Gabriel Mountains, California, Radar image, color as height

    Science.gov (United States)

    2000-01-01

    This topographic radar image shows the relationship of the urban area of Pasadena, California to the natural contours of the land. The image includes the alluvial plain on which Pasadena and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory sit, and the steep range of the San Gabriel Mountains. The mountain front and the arcuate valley running from upper left to the lower right are active fault zones, along which the mountains are rising. The chaparral-covered slopes above Pasadena are also a prime area for wildfires and mudslides. Hazards from earthquakes, floods and fires are intimately related to the topography in this area. Topographic data and other remote sensing images provide valuable information for assessing and mitigating the natural hazards for cities along the front of active mountain ranges.This image combines two types of data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. The image brightness corresponds to the strength of the radar signal reflected from the ground, while colors show the elevation as measured by SRTM. Colors range from blue at the lowest elevations to white at the highest elevations. This image contains about 2300 meters (7500 feet) of total relief. White speckles on the face of some of the mountains are holes in the data caused by steep terrain. These will be filled using coverage from an intersecting pass.The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), launched on February 11,2000, uses the same radar instrument that comprised the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) that flew twice on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1994. The mission is designed to collect three-dimensional measurements of the Earth's surface. To collect the 3-D data, engineers added a 60-meter-long (200-foot) mast, an additional C-band imaging antenna and improved tracking and navigation devices. The mission is a cooperative project between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) and the

  9. Lunar Penetrating Radar onboard the Chang'e-3 mission

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fang, Guang-You; Zhou, Bin; Ji, Yi-Cai; Zhang, Qun-Ying; Shen, Shao-Xiang; Li, Yu-Xi; Guan, Hong-Fei; Tang, Chuan-Jun; Gao, Yun-Ze; Lu, Wei; Ye, Sheng-Bo; Han, Hai-Dong; Zheng, Jin; Wang, Shu-Zhi

    2014-12-01

    Lunar Penetrating Radar (LPR) is one of the important scientific instruments onboard the Chang'e-3 spacecraft. Its scientific goals are the mapping of lunar regolith and detection of subsurface geologic structures. This paper describes the goals of the mission, as well as the basic principles, design, composition and achievements of the LPR. Finally, experiments on a glacier and the lunar surface are analyzed.

  10. Mutual information-based LPI optimisation for radar network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shi, Chenguang; Zhou, Jianjiang; Wang, Fei; Chen, Jun

    2015-07-01

    Radar network can offer significant performance improvement for target detection and information extraction employing spatial diversity. For a fixed number of radars, the achievable mutual information (MI) for estimating the target parameters may extend beyond a predefined threshold with full power transmission. In this paper, an effective low probability of intercept (LPI) optimisation algorithm is presented to improve LPI performance for radar network. Based on radar network system model, we first provide Schleher intercept factor for radar network as an optimisation metric for LPI performance. Then, a novel LPI optimisation algorithm is presented, where for a predefined MI threshold, Schleher intercept factor for radar network is minimised by optimising the transmission power allocation among radars in the network such that the enhanced LPI performance for radar network can be achieved. The genetic algorithm based on nonlinear programming (GA-NP) is employed to solve the resulting nonconvex and nonlinear optimisation problem. Some simulations demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is valuable and effective to improve the LPI performance for radar network.

  11. The effect of recombination and attachment on meteor radar diffusion coefficient profiles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, C. S.; Younger, J. P.; Reid, I. M.; Kim, Y. H.; Kim, J.-H.

    2013-04-01

    Estimates of the ambipolar diffusion coefficient producedusing meteor radar echo decay times display an increasing trend below 80-85 km, which is inconsistent with a diffusion-only theory of the evolution of meteor trails. Data from the 33 MHz meteor radar at King Sejong Station, Antarctica, have been compared with observations from the Aura Earth Observing System Microwave Limb Sounder satellite instrument. It has been found that the height at which the diffusion coefficient gradient reverses follows the height of a constant neutral atmospheric density surface. Numerical simulations of meteor trail diffusion including dissociative recombination with atmospheric ions and three-body attachment of free electrons to neutral molecules indicate that three-body attachment is responsible for the distortion of meteor radar diffusion coefficient profiles at heights below 90 km, including the gradient reversal below 80-85 km. Further investigation has revealed that meteor trails with low initial electron line density produce decay times more consistent with a diffusion-only model of meteor trail evolution.

  12. Radar operation in a hostile electromagnetic environment

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Doerry, Armin Walter

    2014-03-01

    Radar ISR does not always involve cooperative or even friendly targets. An adversary has numerous techniques available to him to counter the effectiveness of a radar ISR sensor. These generally fall under the banner of jamming, spoofing, or otherwise interfering with the EM signals required by the radar sensor. Consequently mitigation techniques are prudent to retain efficacy of the radar sensor. We discuss in general terms a number of mitigation techniques.

  13. Aspects of Radar Polarimetry

    OpenAIRE

    LÜNEBURG, Ernst

    2002-01-01

    This contribution is a tutorial introduction to the phenomenological theory of radar polarimetry for the coherent scatter case emphasizing monostatic backscattering and forward scattering (transmission). Characteristic similarities and differences between radar polarimetry and optical polarimetry and the role of linear and antilinear operators (time-reversal) are pointed out and typical polarimetric invariants are identified.

  14. Remote sensing with laser spectrum radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Tianhe; Zhou, Tao; Jia, Xiaodong

    2016-10-01

    The unmanned airborne (UAV) laser spectrum radar has played a leading role in remote sensing because the transmitter and the receiver are together at laser spectrum radar. The advantages of the integrated transceiver laser spectrum radar is that it can be used in the oil and gas pipeline leak detection patrol line which needs the non-contact reflective detection. The UAV laser spectrum radar can patrol the line and specially detect the swept the area are now in no man's land because most of the oil and gas pipelines are in no man's land. It can save labor costs compared to the manned aircraft and ensure the safety of the pilots. The UAV laser spectrum radar can be also applied in the post disaster relief which detects the gas composition before the firefighters entering the scene of the rescue.

  15. Inversion for Refractivity Parameters Using a Dynamic Adaptive Cuckoo Search with Crossover Operator Algorithm.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Zhihua; Sheng, Zheng; Shi, Hanqing; Fan, Zhiqiang

    2016-01-01

    Using the RFC technique to estimate refractivity parameters is a complex nonlinear optimization problem. In this paper, an improved cuckoo search (CS) algorithm is proposed to deal with this problem. To enhance the performance of the CS algorithm, a parameter dynamic adaptive operation and crossover operation were integrated into the standard CS (DACS-CO). Rechenberg's 1/5 criteria combined with learning factor were used to control the parameter dynamic adaptive adjusting process. The crossover operation of genetic algorithm was utilized to guarantee the population diversity. The new hybrid algorithm has better local search ability and contributes to superior performance. To verify the ability of the DACS-CO algorithm to estimate atmospheric refractivity parameters, the simulation data and real radar clutter data are both implemented. The numerical experiments demonstrate that the DACS-CO algorithm can provide an effective method for near-real-time estimation of the atmospheric refractivity profile from radar clutter.

  16. Modified retrieval algorithm for three types of precipitation distribution using x-band synthetic aperture radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xie, Yanan; Zhou, Mingliang; Pan, Dengke

    2017-10-01

    The forward-scattering model is introduced to describe the response of normalized radar cross section (NRCS) of precipitation with synthetic aperture radar (SAR). Since the distribution of near-surface rainfall is related to the rate of near-surface rainfall and horizontal distribution factor, a retrieval algorithm called modified regression empirical and model-oriented statistical (M-M) based on the volterra integration theory is proposed. Compared with the model-oriented statistical and volterra integration (MOSVI) algorithm, the biggest difference is that the M-M algorithm is based on the modified regression empirical algorithm rather than the linear regression formula to retrieve the value of near-surface rainfall rate. Half of the empirical parameters are reduced in the weighted integral work and a smaller average relative error is received while the rainfall rate is less than 100 mm/h. Therefore, the algorithm proposed in this paper can obtain high-precision rainfall information.

  17. Using phase for radar scatterer classification

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moore, Linda J.; Rigling, Brian D.; Penno, Robert P.; Zelnio, Edmund G.

    2017-04-01

    Traditional synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems tend to discard phase information of formed complex radar imagery prior to automatic target recognition (ATR). This practice has historically been driven by available hardware storage, processing capabilities, and data link capacity. Recent advances in high performance computing (HPC) have enabled extremely dense storage and processing solutions. Therefore, previous motives for discarding radar phase information in ATR applications have been mitigated. First, we characterize the value of phase in one-dimensional (1-D) radar range profiles with respect to the ability to correctly estimate target features, which are currently employed in ATR algorithms for target discrimination. These features correspond to physical characteristics of targets through radio frequency (RF) scattering phenomenology. Physics-based electromagnetic scattering models developed from the geometrical theory of diffraction are utilized for the information analysis presented here. Information is quantified by the error of target parameter estimates from noisy radar signals when phase is either retained or discarded. Operating conditions (OCs) of signal-tonoise ratio (SNR) and bandwidth are considered. Second, we investigate the value of phase in 1-D radar returns with respect to the ability to correctly classify canonical targets. Classification performance is evaluated via logistic regression for three targets (sphere, plate, tophat). Phase information is demonstrated to improve radar target classification rates, particularly at low SNRs and low bandwidths.

  18. Pedestrian recognition using automotive radar sensors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bartsch, A.; Fitzek, F.; Rasshofer, R. H.

    2012-09-01

    The application of modern series production automotive radar sensors to pedestrian recognition is an important topic in research on future driver assistance systems. The aim of this paper is to understand the potential and limits of such sensors in pedestrian recognition. This knowledge could be used to develop next generation radar sensors with improved pedestrian recognition capabilities. A new raw radar data signal processing algorithm is proposed that allows deep insights into the object classification process. The impact of raw radar data properties can be directly observed in every layer of the classification system by avoiding machine learning and tracking. This gives information on the limiting factors of raw radar data in terms of classification decision making. To accomplish the very challenging distinction between pedestrians and static objects, five significant and stable object features from the spatial distribution and Doppler information are found. Experimental results with data from a 77 GHz automotive radar sensor show that over 95% of pedestrians can be classified correctly under optimal conditions, which is compareable to modern machine learning systems. The impact of the pedestrian's direction of movement, occlusion, antenna beam elevation angle, linear vehicle movement, and other factors are investigated and discussed. The results show that under real life conditions, radar only based pedestrian recognition is limited due to insufficient Doppler frequency and spatial resolution as well as antenna side lobe effects.

  19. Target scattering characteristics for OAM-based radar

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kang Liu

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available The target scattering characteristics are crucial for radar systems. However, there is very little study conducted for the recently developed orbital angular momentum (OAM based radar system. To illustrate the role of OAM-based radar cross section (ORCS, conventional radar equation is modified by taking characteristics of the OAM waves into account. Subsequently, the ORCS is defined in analogy to classical radar cross section (RCS. The unique features of the incident OAM-carrying field are analyzed. The scattered field is derived, and the analytical expressions of ORCSs for metal plate and cylinder targets are obtained. Furthermore, the ORCS and RCS are compared to illustrate the influences of OAM mode number, target size and signal frequency on the ORCS. Analytical studies demonstrate that the mirror-reflection phenomenon disappears and peak values of ORCS are in the non-specular direction. Finally, the ORCS features are summarized to show its advantages in radar target detection. This work can provide theoretical guidance to the design of OAM-based radar as well as the target detection and identification applications.

  20. Target scattering characteristics for OAM-based radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Kang; Gao, Yue; Li, Xiang; Cheng, Yongqiang

    2018-02-01

    The target scattering characteristics are crucial for radar systems. However, there is very little study conducted for the recently developed orbital angular momentum (OAM) based radar system. To illustrate the role of OAM-based radar cross section (ORCS), conventional radar equation is modified by taking characteristics of the OAM waves into account. Subsequently, the ORCS is defined in analogy to classical radar cross section (RCS). The unique features of the incident OAM-carrying field are analyzed. The scattered field is derived, and the analytical expressions of ORCSs for metal plate and cylinder targets are obtained. Furthermore, the ORCS and RCS are compared to illustrate the influences of OAM mode number, target size and signal frequency on the ORCS. Analytical studies demonstrate that the mirror-reflection phenomenon disappears and peak values of ORCS are in the non-specular direction. Finally, the ORCS features are summarized to show its advantages in radar target detection. This work can provide theoretical guidance to the design of OAM-based radar as well as the target detection and identification applications.

  1. Searching for stable Si(n)C(n) clusters: combination of stochastic potential surface search and pseudopotential plane-wave Car-Parinello simulated annealing simulations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duan, Xiaofeng F; Burggraf, Larry W; Huang, Lingyu

    2013-07-22

    To find low energy Si(n)C(n) structures out of hundreds to thousands of isomers we have developed a general method to search for stable isomeric structures that combines Stochastic Potential Surface Search and Pseudopotential Plane-Wave Density Functional Theory Car-Parinello Molecular Dynamics simulated annealing (PSPW-CPMD-SA). We enhanced the Sunders stochastic search method to generate random cluster structures used as seed structures for PSPW-CPMD-SA simulations. This method ensures that each SA simulation samples a different potential surface region to find the regional minimum structure. By iterations of this automated, parallel process on a high performance computer we located hundreds to more than a thousand stable isomers for each Si(n)C(n) cluster. Among these, five to 10 of the lowest energy isomers were further optimized using B3LYP/cc-pVTZ method. We applied this method to Si(n)C(n) (n = 4-12) clusters and found the lowest energy structures, most not previously reported. By analyzing the bonding patterns of low energy structures of each Si(n)C(n) cluster, we observed that carbon segregations tend to form condensed conjugated rings while Si connects to unsaturated bonds at the periphery of the carbon segregation as single atoms or clusters when n is small and when n is large a silicon network spans over the carbon segregation region.

  2. Radar application in void and bar detection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Amry Amin Abas; Mohamad Pauzi Ismail; Suhairy Sani

    2003-01-01

    Radar is one of the new non-destructive testing techniques for concrete and structures inspection. Radar is a non-ionizing electromagnetic wave that can penetrate deep into concrete or soil in about several tenths of meters. Method of inspection using radar enables us to perform high resolution detection, imaging and mapping of subsurface concrete and soil condition. This paper will discuss the use of radar for void and bar detection and sizing. The samples used in this paper are custom made samples and comparison will be made to validate the use of radar in detecting, locating and also size determination of voids and bars. (Author)

  3. Radar micro-doppler signatures processing and applications

    CERN Document Server

    Chen, Victor C; Miceli, William J

    2014-01-01

    Radar Micro-Doppler Signatures: Processing and applications concentrates on the processing and application of radar micro-Doppler signatures in real world situations, providing readers with a good working knowledge on a variety of applications of radar micro-Doppler signatures.

  4. Near-surface Imaging of a Maya Plaza Complex using Ground-Penetrating Radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aitken, J. A.; Stewart, R. R.

    2005-05-01

    The University of Calgary has conducted a number of ground-penetrating radar surveys at a Maya archaeological site. The purpose of the study is to discern the near-surface structure and stratigraphy of the plaza, and to assist the archaeologists in focusing their excavation efforts. The area of study is located in Belize, Central America at the ancient Maya site of Maax Na. Flanked by structures believed to be temples to the north and west, the archaeologists were interested in determining how many levels of plaza were built and if there was any discernable slope to the plaza. Over the last three years, both 2-D lines and 3-D grids were acquired at the plaza using a Sensors and Software Inc. Noggin Plus system at an antenna frequency of 250 MHz. The processing flow consisted of the application of gain, various filtering techniques and a diffraction stack migration using Reflexw. Interpolation of the gridded data was investigated using simple averaging, F-K migration, pre-stack migration and inversion techniques. As this study has evolved over different field seasons, measured velocities appear to change with the saturation level of the shallow section. Velocity measurements ranged from 0.058 - .106 m/ns during the wet conditions encountered in 2002 and 2004, while velocities of 1.22 - 1.40 m/ns were measured in the drought of 2003. The GPR images to date indicate continuous and interpretable images of the subsurface, showing evidence of structure, discontinuities and amplitude variations. A number of interesting anomalies have been identified, and prioritized for excavation.

  5. SAR Ambiguity Study for the Cassini Radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hensley, Scott; Im, Eastwood; Johnson, William T. K.

    1993-01-01

    The Cassini Radar's synthetic aperture radar (SAR) ambiguity analysis is unique with respect to other spaceborne SAR ambiguity analyses owing to the non-orbiting spacecraft trajectory, asymmetric antenna pattern, and burst mode of data collection. By properly varying the pointing, burst mode timing, and radar parameters along the trajectory this study shows that the signal-to-ambiguity ratio of better than 15 dB can be achieved for all images obtained by the Cassini Radar.

  6. APPLICATION OF SENTINEL-1 RADAR DATA FOR MAPPING HARD-TO-REACH NORTHERN TERRITORIES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Е. А. Baldina

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The new European space satellites Sentinel-1A and 1B with C-band radars on board, launched in 2014 and 2016 respectively, provide regular radar data on the Earth’s surface with high temporal resolution. These new non-commercial data provides extensive opportunities for research of remote Arctic territories, poorly supplied with optical images due to cloud conditions. Difficulties in recognizing objects on radar images can be compensated for by the possibility of using multiple repeated surveys, which make it possible to identify areas of the terrain which are similar in character of changes. In the study, four Sentinel-1A images of the largest from the New Siberian islands – Kotelny – were used, which were acquired during the summer period from July 3 to August 20, 2015. After preprocessing aimed at improving the visual properties and coregistration of the multitemporal images, an automated clustering of the multitemporal image set was carried out. Clustering results were analyzed on comparison with additional sources of spatial information. Both specialized software for Sentinel-1 radar data processing - SNAP, and the GIS software complex ArcGIS were used. The latter provided the creation of the spatial data base for comparing the results of radar data processing and cartographic sources. The map of the territory zoning was obtained as clustering results which is based on the changes in the normalized radar cross section (sigma nought over the summer period, and the approximate correspondence of the areas to the main types of the relief and landscapes of the island was established.

  7. Radar Determination of Fault Slip and Location in Partially Decorrelated Images

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parker, Jay; Glasscoe, Margaret; Donnellan, Andrea; Stough, Timothy; Pierce, Marlon; Wang, Jun

    2017-06-01

    Faced with the challenge of thousands of frames of radar interferometric images, automated feature extraction promises to spur data understanding and highlight geophysically active land regions for further study. We have developed techniques for automatically determining surface fault slip and location using deformation images from the NASA Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR), which is similar to satellite-based SAR but has more mission flexibility and higher resolution (pixels are approximately 7 m). This radar interferometry provides a highly sensitive method, clearly indicating faults slipping at levels of 10 mm or less. But interferometric images are subject to decorrelation between revisit times, creating spots of bad data in the image. Our method begins with freely available data products from the UAVSAR mission, chiefly unwrapped interferograms, coherence images, and flight metadata. The computer vision techniques we use assume no data gaps or holes; so a preliminary step detects and removes spots of bad data and fills these holes by interpolation and blurring. Detected and partially validated surface fractures from earthquake main shocks, aftershocks, and aseismic-induced slip are shown for faults in California, including El Mayor-Cucapah (M7.2, 2010), the Ocotillo aftershock (M5.7, 2010), and South Napa (M6.0, 2014). Aseismic slip is detected on the San Andreas Fault from the El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake, in regions of highly patterned partial decorrelation. Validation is performed by comparing slip estimates from two interferograms with published ground truth measurements.

  8. Quantitative analysis of surface characteristics and morphology in Death Valley, California using AIRSAR data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kierein-Young, K. S.; Kruse, F. A.; Lefkoff, A. B.

    1992-01-01

    The Jet Propulsion Laboratory Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (JPL-AIRSAR) is used to collect full polarimetric measurements at P-, L-, and C-bands. These data are analyzed using the radar analysis and visualization environment (RAVEN). The AIRSAR data are calibrated using in-scene corner reflectors to allow for quantitative analysis of the radar backscatter. RAVEN is used to extract surface characteristics. Inversion models are used to calculate quantitative surface roughness values and fractal dimensions. These values are used to generate synthetic surface plots that represent the small-scale surface structure of areas in Death Valley. These procedures are applied to a playa, smooth salt-pan, and alluvial fan surfaces in Death Valley. Field measurements of surface roughness are used to verify the accuracy.

  9. Radar Polarimetry: Theory, Analysis, and Applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hubbert, John Clark

    The fields of radar polarimetry and optical polarimetry are compared. The mathematics of optic polarimetry are formulated such that a local right handed coordinate system is always used to describe the polarization states. This is not done in radar polarimetry. Radar optimum polarization theory is redeveloped within the framework of optical polarimetry. The radar optimum polarizations and optic eigenvalues of common scatterers are compared. In addition a novel definition of an eigenpolarization state is given and the accompanying mathematics is developed. The polarization response calculated using optic, radar and novel definitions is presented for a variety of scatterers. Polarimetric transformation provides a means to characterize scatters in more than one polarization basis. Polarimetric transformation for an ensemble of scatters is obtained via two methods: (1) the covariance method and (2) the instantaneous scattering matrix (ISM) method. The covariance method is used to relate the mean radar parameters of a +/-45^circ linear polarization basis to those of a horizontal and vertical polarization basis. In contrast the ISM method transforms the individual time samples. Algorithms are developed for transforming the time series from fully polarimetric radars that switch between orthogonal states. The transformed time series are then used to calculate the mean radar parameters of interest. It is also shown that propagation effects do not need to be removed from the ISM's before transformation. The techniques are demonstrated using data collected by POLDIRAD, the German Aerospace Research Establishment's fully polarimetric C-band radar. The differential phase observed between two copolar states, Psi_{CO}, is composed of two phases: (1) differential propagation phase, phi_{DP}, and (2) differential backscatter phase, delta. The slope of phi_{DP } with range is an estimate of the specific differential phase, K_{DP}. The process of estimating K_{DP} is complicated when

  10. Hurricane Rita Track Radar Image with Topographic Overlay

    Science.gov (United States)

    2005-01-01

    [figure removed for brevity, see original site] Animation About the animation: This simulated view of the potential effects of storm surge flooding on Galveston and portions of south Houston was generated with data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. Although it is protected by a 17-foot sea wall against storm surges, flooding due to storm surges caused by major hurricanes remains a concern. The animation shows regions that, if unprotected, would be inundated with water. The animation depicts flooding in one-meter increments. About the image: The Gulf Coast from the Mississippi Delta through the Texas coast is shown in this satellite image from NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) overlain with data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), and the predicted storm track for Hurricane Rita. The prediction from the National Weather Service was published Sept. 22 at 4 p.m. Central Time, and shows the expected track center in black with the lighter shaded area indicating the range of potential tracks the storm could take. Low-lying terrain along the coast has been highlighted using the SRTM elevation data, with areas within 15 feet of sea level shown in red, and within 30 feet in yellow. These areas are more at risk for flooding and the destructive effects of storm surge and high waves. Data used in this image were acquired by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, launched on Feb. 11, 2000. SRTM used the same radar instrument that comprised the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) that flew twice on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1994. SRTM was designed to collect 3-D measurements of the Earth's surface. To collect the 3-D data, engineers added a 60-meter (approximately 200-foot) mast, installed additional C-band and X-band antennas, and improved tracking and navigation devices. The mission is a cooperative project between NASA, the National Geospatial

  11. Surface Circulation in the Iroise Sea (W. Brittany) from High Resolution HF Radar Mapping

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-01-01

    oceanographic conditions in many coastal regions (e.g. Bassin et al., 2005; Breivik and Sætra, 2001; Haus et al., 2000; Kaplan et al., 2005; Kovacevic et...Oceanol. Acta 22–2, 153–166. Breivik , O., Sætra, O., 2001. Real time assimilation of HF radar currents into a coastal ocean model. J. Mar. Syst. 28

  12. Monitoring coastal inundation with Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suzuoki, Yukihiro; Rangoonwala, Amina; Ramsey, Elijah W.

    2011-01-01

    Maps representing the presence and absence of surface inundation in the Louisiana coastal zone were created from available satellite scenes acquired by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's Advanced Land Observing Satellite and by the European Space Agency's Envisat from late 2006 through summer 2009. Detection of aboveground surface flooding relied on the well-documented and distinct signature of decreased backscatter in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), which is indicative of inundated marsh in the Gulf of Mexico. Even though decreases in backscatter were distinctive, the multiplicity of possible interactions between changing flood depths and canopy height yielded complex SAR-based representations of the marshes.

  13. Hyperspectral and Radar Airborne Imagery over Controlled Release of Oil at Sea

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sébastien Angelliaume

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Remote sensing techniques are commonly used by Oil and Gas companies to monitor hydrocarbon on the ocean surface. The interest lies not only in exploration but also in the monitoring of the maritime environment. Occurrence of natural seeps on the sea surface is a key indicator of the presence of mature source rock in the subsurface. These natural seeps, as well as the oil slicks, are commonly detected using radar sensors but the addition of optical imagery can deliver extra information such as thickness and composition of the detected oil, which is critical for both exploration purposes and efficient cleanup operations. Today, state-of-the-art approaches combine multiple data collected by optical and radar sensors embedded on-board different airborne and spaceborne platforms, to ensure wide spatial coverage and high frequency revisit time. Multi-wavelength imaging system may create a breakthrough in remote sensing applications, but it requires adapted processing techniques that need to be developed. To explore performances offered by multi-wavelength radar and optical sensors for oil slick monitoring, remote sensing data have been collected by SETHI (Système Expérimental de Télédection Hyperfréquence Imageur, the airborne system developed by ONERA (the French Aerospace Lab, during an oil spill cleanup exercise carried out in 2015 in the North Sea, Europe. The uniqueness of this dataset lies in its high spatial resolution, low noise level and quasi-simultaneous acquisitions of different part of the EM spectrum. Specific processing techniques have been developed to extract meaningful information associated with oil-covered sea surface. Analysis of this unique and rich dataset demonstrates that remote sensing imagery, collected in both optical and microwave domains, allows estimating slick surface properties such as the age of the emulsion released at sea, the spatial abundance of oil and the relative concentration of hydrocarbons remaining on

  14. The experimental results and analysis of a borehole radar prototype

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu, Sixin; Wu, Junjun; Dong, Hang; Fu, Lei; Wang, Fei

    2012-01-01

    A prototype of borehole radar has been successfully tested in three sites for different purposes under a field condition. The objective of the prototype is providing an effective down-hole tool for detecting targets in deep boreholes situated in a relatively high conductivity area such as the metal ores. The first testing site is at a geothermal field. The fractures extending more than 20 m from the borehole are delineated by the borehole radar in the single-hole reflection mode. The second testing site is located in a jade mine for basement evaluation. The cross-hole measurement mode was used to detect the cavities made by previous unorganized mining activities. Several high-velocity anomalies were found in the velocity profile and presumably the targets of the mine shafts and tunnels. The third test site is located in a mineralized belt characterized by low resistivity less than 1000 Ohm m, the surface-borehole measurement was carried out and the data were processed with velocity tomography. The low-velocity zone corresponds to a mineralized zone from geological records. The three testing results proved the readiness of this borehole radar prototype for further deployment in more complicated and realistic field situations. (paper)

  15. Analysis of X-band radar images for the detection of the reflected and diffracted waves in coastal zones

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ludeno, Giovanni; Natale, Antonio; Soldovieri, Francesco; Vicinanza, Diego; Serafino, Francesco

    2014-05-01

    The observation of nearshore waves and the knowledge of the sea state parameters can play a crucial role for the safety of harbors and ocean engineering. In the last two decades, different algorithms for the estimation of sea state parameters, surface currents and bathymetry from X-band radar data have been developed and validated [1, 2]. The retrieval of ocean wave parameters such as significant height, period, direction and wavelength of the dominant wave is based on the spectral analysis of data sequences collected by nautical X-band radars [3]. In particular, the reconstruction of the wave motion is carried out through the inversion procedure explained in [1-3], which exploits the dispersion relationship to define a band pass filter used to separate the energy associated with the ocean waves from the background noise. It is worth to note that the shape of such a band pass filter depends upon the value of both the surface currents and bathymetry; in our reconstruction algorithm these parameters are estimated through the (Normalized Scalar Product) procedure [1], which outperforms other existing methods (e.g., the Least Squares) [4]. From the reconstructed wave elevation sequences we can get the directional spectrum that provides useful information (i.e., wavelength, period, direction and amplitude) relevant to the main waves contributing to the wave motion. Of course, in coastal zones a number of diffraction and reflection phenomena can be observed, due to sea-waves impinging obstacles as jetties, breakwaters and boats. In the present paper we want to show the capability to detect reflected and diffracted sea-waves offered by the processing of X-band radar data. Further details relevant to the obtained results will be provided in the full paper and at the conference time. References [1] F. Serafino, C. Lugni, F. Soldovieri, "A novel strategy for the surface current determination from marine X-Band radar data", IEEE Geosci. and Remote Sensing Letters, vol. 7, no

  16. Introduction to radar target recognition

    CERN Document Server

    Tait, P

    2006-01-01

    This new text provides an overview of the radar target recognition process and covers the key techniques being developed for operational systems. It is based on the fundamental scientific principles of high resolution radar, and explains how the techniques can be used in real systems, taking into account the characteristics of practical radar system designs and component limitations. It also addresses operational aspects, such as how high resolution modes would fit in with other functions such as detection and tracking. Mathematics is kept to a minimum and the complex techniques and issues are

  17. Evidence for ground-ice occurrence on asteroid Vesta using Dawn bistatic radar observations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Palmer, E. M.; Heggy, E.; Kofman, W. W.

    2017-12-01

    From 2011 to 2012, the Dawn spacecraft orbited asteroid Vesta, the first of its two targets in the asteroid belt, and conducted the first bistatic radar (BSR) experiment at a small-body, during which Dawn's high-gain communications antenna is used to transmit radar waves that scatter from Vesta's surface toward Earth at high incidence angles just before and after occultation of the spacecraft behind the asteroid. Among the 14 observed mid-latitude forward-scatter reflections, the radar cross section ranges from 84 ± 8 km2 (near Saturnalia Fossae) to 3,588 ± 200 km2 (northwest of Caparronia crater), implying substantial spatial variation in centimeter- to decimeter-scale surface roughness. The compared distributions of surface roughness and subsurface hydrogen concentration [H]—measured using data from Dawn's BSR experiment and Gamma Ray and Neutron Spectrometer (GRaND), respectively—reveal the occurrence of heightened subsurface [H] with smoother terrains that cover tens of square kilometers. Furthermore, unlike on the Moon, we observe no correlation between surface roughness and surface ages on Vesta—whether the latter is derived from lunar or asteroid-flux chronology [Williams et al., 2014]—suggesting that cratering processes alone are insufficient to explain Vesta's surface texture at centimeter-to-decimeter scales. Dawn's BSR observations support the hypothesis of transient melting, runoff and recrystallization of potential ground-ice deposits, which are postulated to flow along fractures after an impact, and provide a mechanism for the smoothing of otherwise rough, fragmented impact ejecta. Potential ground-ice presence within Vesta's subsurface was first proposed by Scully et al. [2014], who identified geomorphological evidence for transient water flow along several of Vesta's crater walls using Dawn Framing Camera images. While airless, differentiated bodies such as Vesta and the Moon are thought to have depleted their initial volatile content

  18. Effect of ray and speed perturbations on ionospheric tomography by over-the-horizon radar: A new method, useful for SuperDarn radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eisenbeis, J.; Roy, C.; Bland, E. C.; Occhipinti, G.

    2017-12-01

    Most recent methods in ionospheric tomography are based on the inversion of the total electron content measured by ground-based GPS receivers. As a consequence of the high frequency of the GPS signal and the absence of horizontal raypaths, the electron density structure is mainly reconstructed in the F2 region (300 km), where the ionosphere reaches the maximum of ionization, and is not sensitive to the lower ionospheric structure. We propose here a new tomographic method of the lower ionosphere (Roy et al., 2014), based on the full inversion of over-the-horizon (OTH) radar data and applicable to SuperDarn data. The major advantage of our methodology is taking into account, numerically and jointly, the effect that the electron density perturbations induce not only in the speed of electromagnetic waves but also on the raypath geometry. This last point is extremely critical for OTH/SuperDarn data inversions as the emitted signal propagates through the ionosphere between a fixed starting point (the radar) and an unknown end point on the Earth surface where the signal is backscattered. We detail our ionospheric tomography method with the aid of benchmark tests in order to highlight the sensitivity of the radar related to the explored observational parameters: frequencies, elevations, azimuths. Having proved the necessity to take into account both effects simultaneously, we apply our method to real backscattered data from Super Darn and OTH radar. The preliminary solution obtained with the Hokkaido East SuperDARN with only two frequencies (10MHz and 11MHz), showed here, is stable and push us to deeply explore a more complete dataset that we will present at the AGU 2017. This is, in our knowledge, the first time that an ionospheric tomography has been estimated with SuperDarn backscattered data. Reference: Roy, C., G. Occhipinti, L. Boschi, J.-P. Moliné, and M. Wieczorek (2014), Effect of ray and speed perturbations on ionospheric tomography by over-the-horizon radar: A

  19. Pipe Penetrating Radar: a New Tool for the Assessment of Critical Infrastructure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ekes, C.; Neducz, B.

    2012-04-01

    This paper describes the development of Pipe Penetrating Radar (PPR), the underground in-pipe application of GPR, a non-destructive testing method that can detect defects and cavities within and outside mainline diameter (>18 in / 450mm) non-metallic (concrete, PVC, HDPE, etc.) underground pipes. The method uses two or more high frequency GPR antennae carried by a robot into underground pipes. The radar data is transmitted to the surface via fibre optic cable and is recorded together with the output from CCTV (and optionally sonar and laser). Proprietary software analyzes the data and pinpoints defects or cavities within and outside the pipe. Thus the testing can identify existing pipe and pipe bedding symptoms that can be addressed to prevent catastrophic failure due to sinkhole development and can provide useful information about the remaining service life of the pipe. The key innovative aspect is the unique ability to map pipe wall thickness and deterioration including cracks and voids outside the pipe, enabling accurate predictability of needed intervention or the timing of replacement. This reliable non-destructive testing method significantly impacts subsurface infrastructure condition based asset management by supplying previously unattainable measurable conditions. Keywords: pipe penetrating radar (PPR), ground penetrating radar (GPR), pipe inspection, concrete deterioration, municipal engineering

  20. Ground and Space Radar Volume Matching and Comparison Software

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morris, Kenneth; Schwaller, Mathew

    2010-01-01

    This software enables easy comparison of ground- and space-based radar observations. The software was initially designed to compare ground radar reflectivity from operational, ground based Sand C-band meteorological radars with comparable measurements from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite s Precipitation Radar (PR) instrument. The software is also applicable to other ground-based and space-based radars. The ground and space radar volume matching and comparison software was developed in response to requirements defined by the Ground Validation System (GVS) of Goddard s Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) project. This software innovation is specifically concerned with simplifying the comparison of ground- and spacebased radar measurements for the purpose of GPM algorithm and data product validation. This software is unique in that it provides an operational environment to routinely create comparison products, and uses a direct geometric approach to derive common volumes of space- and ground-based radar data. In this approach, spatially coincident volumes are defined by the intersection of individual space-based Precipitation Radar rays with the each of the conical elevation sweeps of the ground radar. Thus, the resampled volume elements of the space and ground radar reflectivity can be directly compared to one another.

  1. Development Of Signal Detection For Radar Navigation System

    OpenAIRE

    Theingi Win Hlaing; Hla Myo Tun; Zaw Min Naing; Win Khaing Moe

    2017-01-01

    This paper aims to evaluate the performance of target detection in the presence of sea clutter. Radar detection of a background of unwanted clutter due to echoes from sea clutter or land is a problem of interest in the radar field. Radar detector has been developed by assuming the radar clutter is Gaussian distributed. However as technology emerges the radar distribution is seen to deviates from the Gaussian assumption. Thus detectors designs based on Gaussian assumption are no longer optimum...

  2. Earth-based radar and LRO Diviner constraints on the recent rate of lunar ejecta processing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ghent, Rebecca R.; Hayne, Paul O.; Bandfield, Joshua L.; Campbell, Bruce A.; Carter, Lynn M.; Allen, Carlton

    2013-04-01

    Many large craters on the lunar nearside show radar circular polarization ratio (CPR) signatures consistent with the presence of blocky ejecta blankets, to distances of 0.5 to 1.5 crater radii. However, most of these surfaces show very low surface rock concentration values and only limited enhancements in regolith temperatures calculated from Diviner nighttime infrared observations. Because the radar signal is integrated over the radar penetration depth (up to several meters), but the Diviner signal is sensitive only to rocks within the upper meter of the surface, this indicates that ejecta blocks on the surface and in the shallow subsurface are quickly removed by continued bombardment. Deeper subsurface rocks, which are clearly evident in radar CPR maps but are covered by a sufficiently thick layer of thermally insulating regolith material to render them invisible to Diviner, persist for much longer. By matching the results of one-dimensional thermal models to Diviner nighttime temperatures, we can constrain the thermophysical properties of the upper 1 meter of regolith. We find that Diviner nighttime cooling curves are best fit by a density profile that varies exponentially with depth, consistent with a mixture of rocks and regolith fines, with increasing rock content with depth. Using this density profile together with the surface rock abundance, we can estimate the excess rock mass represented by rocks on the surface and within the upper meter of regolith for individual craters. We find that for craters of known age younger than ~1.7Ga, a robust correlation exists between ejecta mass and crater age, which yields the first observational estimate of the rate of lunar ejecta processing. Our results show that crater ejecta are initially removed very quickly (perhaps up to ~1cm / m.y.), with the rate slowing over a short period of time to less than 1 mm / m.y., as the number of blocks on the surface decreases and the volume of protective regolith material increases

  3. Radar detection of Vesta

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ostro, S.J.; Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.); Campbell, D.B.; Pettengill, G.H.

    1980-01-01

    Asteroid 4 Vesta was detected on November 6, 1979 with the Arecibo Observatory's S-band (12.6-cm-wavelength) radar. The echo power spectrum, received in the circular polarization opposite to that transmitted, yields a radar cross section of (0.2 + or - 0.1)pi a-squared, for a 272 km. The data are too noisy to permit derivation of Vesta's rotation period

  4. Development of Radar-Satellite Blended QPF (Quantitative Precipitation Forecast) Technique for heavy rainfall

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jang, Sangmin; Yoon, Sunkwon; Rhee, Jinyoung; Park, Kyungwon

    2016-04-01

    Due to the recent extreme weather and climate change, a frequency and size of localized heavy rainfall increases and it may bring various hazards including sediment-related disasters, flooding and inundation. To prevent and mitigate damage from such disasters, very short range forecasting and nowcasting of precipitation amounts are very important. Weather radar data very useful in monitoring and forecasting because weather radar has high resolution in spatial and temporal. Generally, extrapolation based on the motion vector is the best method of precipitation forecasting using radar rainfall data for a time frame within a few hours from the present. However, there is a need for improvement due to the radar rainfall being less accurate than rain-gauge on surface. To improve the radar rainfall and to take advantage of the COMS (Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite) data, a technique to blend the different data types for very short range forecasting purposes was developed in the present study. The motion vector of precipitation systems are estimated using 1.5km CAPPI (Constant Altitude Plan Position Indicator) reflectivity by pattern matching method, which indicates the systems' direction and speed of movement and blended radar-COMS rain field is used for initial data. Since the original horizontal resolution of COMS is 4 km while that of radar is about 1 km, spatial downscaling technique is used to downscale the COMS data from 4 to 1 km pixels in order to match with the radar data. The accuracies of rainfall forecasting data were verified utilizing AWS (Automatic Weather System) observed data for an extreme rainfall occurred in the southern part of Korean Peninsula on 25 August 2014. The results of this study will be used as input data for an urban stream real-time flood early warning system and a prediction model of landslide. Acknowledgement This research was supported by a grant (13SCIPS04) from Smart Civil Infrastructure Research Program funded by

  5. Condor equatorial electrojet campaign: Radar results

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kudeki, E.; Fejer, B.G.; Farley, D.T.; Hanuise, C.

    1987-01-01

    A review of the experimental and theoretical background to the Condor equatorial electrojet compaign is followed by the presentation and discussion of VHF radar interferometer and HF radar backscatter data taken concurrently with two rocket in situ experiments reported in companion papers (Pfaff et al., this issue (a, b). Both experiments were conducted in strongly driven periods with the on-line radar interferometer displaying signatures of what has been interpreted in earlier radar work (Kudeki et al., 1982) as kilometer scale gradient drift waves. Low-frequency density fluctuations detected by in situ rocket sensors confirm the earlier interpretation. VHF radar/rocket data comparisons also indicate the existence of a turbulent layer in the upper portion of the daytime electrojet at about 108 km altitude driven purely by the two-stream instability. Nonlinear mode coupling of linearly growing two-stream waves to linearly damped 3-m vertical modes could account for the radar echoes scattered from this layer, which showed no indication of large-scale gradient drift waves. Nonlinear mode coupling may therefore compete with the wave-induced anomalous diffusion mechanism proposed recently by Sudan (1983) for the saturation of directly excited two-stream waves. Nighttime radar data show a bifurcated layer with the two parts having comparable echo strength but oppositely directed zonal drift velocities. The lower layer shows narrow backscatter spectra; the upper layer is characterized by kilometer scale waves and vertically propagating type 1 waves

  6. Monsoon Convective During the South China Sea Monsoon Experiment: Observations from Ground-Based Radar and the TRMM Satellite

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cifelli, Rob; Rickenbach, Tom; Halverson, Jeff; Keenan, Tom; Kucera, Paul; Atkinson, Lester; Fisher, Brad; Gerlach, John; Harris, Kathy; Kaufman, Cristina

    1999-01-01

    A main goal of the recent South China Sea Monsoon Experiment (SCSMEX) was to study convective processes associated with the onset of the Southeast Asian summer monsoon. The NASA TOGA C-band scanning radar was deployed on the Chinese research vessel Shi Yan #3 for two 20 day cruises, collecting dual-Doppler measurements in conjunction with the BMRC C-Pol dual-polarimetric radar on Dongsha Island. Soundings and surface meteorological data were also collected with an NCAR Integrated Sounding System (ISS). This experiment was the first major tropical field campaign following the launch of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite. These observations of tropical oceanic convection provided an opportunity to make comparisons between surface radar measurements and the Precipitation Radar (PR) aboard the TRMM satellite in an oceanic environment. Nearly continuous radar operations were conducted during two Intensive Observing Periods (IOPS) straddling the onset of the monsoon (5-25 May 1998 and 5-25 June 1998). Mesoscale lines of convection with widespread regions of both trailing and forward stratiform precipitation were observed following the onset of the active monsoon in the northern South China Sea region. The vertical structure of the convection during periods of strong westerly flow and relatively moist environmental conditions in the lower to mid-troposphere contrasted sharply with convection observed during periods of low level easterlies, weak shear, and relatively dry conditions in the mid to upper troposphere. Several examples of mesoscale convection will be shown from the ground (ship)-based and spaceborne radar data during times of TRMM satellite overpasses. Examples of pre-monsoon convection, characterized by isolated cumulonimbus and shallow, precipitating congestus clouds, will also be discussed.

  7. A 100 GHz Polarimetric Compact Radar Range for Scale-Model Radar Cross Section Measurements

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-10-01

    common radar bands. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors wish to thank David Jillson (UML STL – Electrical Engineer) for efforts involved in RF and DC wiring...Waldman J., Fetterman H.R., Duffy P.E., Bryant T.G., Tannenwald P.E., “Submillimeter Model Measurements and Their Applications to Millimeter Radar

  8. Developing hydrological monitoring system based on HF radar for islands and reefs in the South China Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, J.; Shi, P.; Chen, J.; Zhu, Y.; Li, B.

    2016-12-01

    There are many islands (or reefs) in the South China Sea. The hydrological properties (currents and waves) around the islands are highly spatially variable compared to those of coastal region of mainland, because the shorelines are more complex with much smaller scale, and the topographies are step-shape with a much sharper slope. The currents and waves with high spatial variations may destroy the buildings or engineering on shorelines, or even influence the structural stability of reefs. Therefore, it is necessary to establish monitoring systems to obtain the high-resolution hydrological information. This study propose a plan for developing a hydrological monitoring system based on HF radar on the shoreline of a typical island in the southern South China Sea: firstly, the HF radar are integrated with auxiliary equipment (such as dynamo, fuel tank, air conditioner, communication facilities) in a container to build a whole monitoring platform; synchronously, several buoys are set within the radar visibility for data calibration and validation; and finally, the current and wave observations collected by the HF radar are assimilated with numerical models to obtain long-term and high-precision reanalysis products. To test the feasibility of this plan, our research group has built two HF radar sites at the western coastal region of Guangdong Province. The collected data were used to extract surface current information and assimilated with an ocean model. The results show that the data assimilation can highly improve the surface current simulation, especially for typhoon periods. Continuous data with intervals between 6 and 12 hour are the most suitable for ideal assimilations. On the other hand, the test also reveal that developing similar monitoring system on island environments need advanced radars that have higher resolutions and a better performance for persistent work.

  9. Study to investigate and evaluate means of optimizing the radar function. [systems engineering of pulse radar for the space shuttle

    Science.gov (United States)

    1975-01-01

    The investigations for a rendezvous radar system design and an integrated radar/communication system design are presented. Based on these investigations, system block diagrams are given and system parameters are optimized for the noncoherent pulse and coherent pulse Doppler radar modulation types. Both cooperative (transponder) and passive radar operation are examined including the optimization of the corresponding transponder design for the cooperative mode of operation.

  10. Signal compression in radar using FPGA

    OpenAIRE

    Escamilla Hemández, Enrique; Kravchenko, Víctor; Ponomaryov, Volodymyr; Duchen Sánchez, Gonzalo; Hernández Sánchez, David

    2010-01-01

    We present the hardware implementation of radar real time processing procedures using a simple, fast technique based on FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) architecture. This processing includes different window procedures during pulse compression in synthetic aperture radar (SAR). The radar signal compression processing is realized using matched filter, and classical and novel window functions, where we focus on better solution for minimum values of sidelobes. The proposed architecture expl...

  11. Pedestrian recognition using automotive radar sensors

    OpenAIRE

    A. Bartsch; F. Fitzek; R. H. Rasshofer

    2012-01-01

    The application of modern series production automotive radar sensors to pedestrian recognition is an important topic in research on future driver assistance systems. The aim of this paper is to understand the potential and limits of such sensors in pedestrian recognition. This knowledge could be used to develop next generation radar sensors with improved pedestrian recognition capabilities. A new raw radar data signal processing algorithm is proposed that allows deep insight...

  12. Comparison of Trajectories Generated by the NOAA Oil Spill Model to Trajectories Produced Using HF Radar-Derived Curents in Monterey Bay

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Smith, Margaret

    1997-01-01

    .... Trajectories produced by the NOAA/HAZMAT On-Scene Spill Model, using different combinations of surface currents and winds, were compared to trajectories generated using HF radar-derived surface currents...

  13. Radar Exploration of Cometary Nuclei

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gim, Yonggyu; Heggy, E.; Belton, M.; Weissman, P.; Asphaug, E.

    2012-10-01

    We have developed a mission formulation, based on the use of previously flown planetary radar sounding techniques, to image the 3D internal structure of the nucleus of a Jupiter-family comet (JFC). Believed to originate in the outer solar system and to be delivered recently to the inner solar system from the Kuiper Belt, JFCs are among the most primitive bodies accessible by spacecraft, and are indicated in the 2010 Decadal Survey as primary targets for primitive bodies sample return. We consider a sounder design operating at dual frequencies, 5 and 15 MHz center frequencies with 1 and 10 MHz bandwidths, respectively. Operating from close orbit about the nucleus of a spinning comet nucleus, CORE obtains a dense network of echoes that are used to image its interior structure to 10 m and to map the dielectric properties inside the nucleus to better than 200 m throughout. Clear images of internal structure and dielectric composition will reveal how the nucleus was formed and how it has evolved. Radiometric tracking of the spacecraft orbit will provide an interior mass distribution that constrains the radar-based models of interior composition. High-resolution visible and infrared color images provide surface and exterior boundary conditions for interior models and hypotheses. They present the geology and morphology of the nucleus surface at meter-scales, and the time-evolving activity, structure, and composition of the inner coma. By making global yet detailed connections from interior to exterior, the data from CORE will provide answers to fundamental questions about the earliest stages of planetesimal evolution and planet formation, will be an important complement to the Rosetta mission science, and will lay the foundation for comet nucleus sample return.

  14. An Improved Chaos Genetic Algorithm for T-Shaped MIMO Radar Antenna Array Optimization

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xin Fu

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available In view of the fact that the traditional genetic algorithm easily falls into local optimum in the late iterations, an improved chaos genetic algorithm employed chaos theory and genetic algorithm is presented to optimize the low side-lobe for T-shaped MIMO radar antenna array. The novel two-dimension Cat chaotic map has been put forward to produce its initial population, improving the diversity of individuals. The improved Tent map is presented for groups of individuals of a generation with chaos disturbance. Improved chaotic genetic algorithm optimization model is established. The algorithm presented in this paper not only improved the search precision, but also avoids effectively the problem of local convergence and prematurity. For MIMO radar, the improved chaos genetic algorithm proposed in this paper obtains lower side-lobe level through optimizing the exciting current amplitude. Simulation results show that the algorithm is feasible and effective. Its performance is superior to the traditional genetic algorithm.

  15. Tsunami detection by high-frequency radar in British Columbia: performance assessment of the time-correlation algorithm for synthetic and real events

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guérin, Charles-Antoine; Grilli, Stéphan T.; Moran, Patrick; Grilli, Annette R.; Insua, Tania L.

    2018-02-01

    The authors recently proposed a new method for detecting tsunamis using high-frequency (HF) radar observations, referred to as "time-correlation algorithm" (TCA; Grilli et al. Pure Appl Geophys 173(12):3895-3934, 2016a, 174(1): 3003-3028, 2017). Unlike standard algorithms that detect surface current patterns, the TCA is based on analyzing space-time correlations of radar signal time series in pairs of radar cells, which does not require inverting radial surface currents. This was done by calculating a contrast function, which quantifies the change in pattern of the mean correlation between pairs of neighboring cells upon tsunami arrival, with respect to a reference correlation computed in the recent past. In earlier work, the TCA was successfully validated based on realistic numerical simulations of both the radar signal and tsunami wave trains. Here, this algorithm is adapted to apply to actual data from a HF radar installed in Tofino, BC, for three test cases: (1) a simulated far-field tsunami generated in the Semidi Subduction Zone in the Aleutian Arc; (2) a simulated near-field tsunami from a submarine mass failure on the continental slope off of Tofino; and (3) an event believed to be a meteotsunami, which occurred on October 14th, 2016, off of the Pacific West Coast and was measured by the radar. In the first two cases, the synthetic tsunami signal is superimposed onto the radar signal by way of a current memory term; in the third case, the tsunami signature is present within the radar data. In light of these test cases, we develop a detection methodology based on the TCA, using a correlation contrast function, and show that in all three cases the algorithm is able to trigger a timely early warning.

  16. Tsunami detection by high-frequency radar in British Columbia: performance assessment of the time-correlation algorithm for synthetic and real events

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guérin, Charles-Antoine; Grilli, Stéphan T.; Moran, Patrick; Grilli, Annette R.; Insua, Tania L.

    2018-05-01

    The authors recently proposed a new method for detecting tsunamis using high-frequency (HF) radar observations, referred to as "time-correlation algorithm" (TCA; Grilli et al. Pure Appl Geophys 173(12):3895-3934, 2016a, 174(1): 3003-3028, 2017). Unlike standard algorithms that detect surface current patterns, the TCA is based on analyzing space-time correlations of radar signal time series in pairs of radar cells, which does not require inverting radial surface currents. This was done by calculating a contrast function, which quantifies the change in pattern of the mean correlation between pairs of neighboring cells upon tsunami arrival, with respect to a reference correlation computed in the recent past. In earlier work, the TCA was successfully validated based on realistic numerical simulations of both the radar signal and tsunami wave trains. Here, this algorithm is adapted to apply to actual data from a HF radar installed in Tofino, BC, for three test cases: (1) a simulated far-field tsunami generated in the Semidi Subduction Zone in the Aleutian Arc; (2) a simulated near-field tsunami from a submarine mass failure on the continental slope off of Tofino; and (3) an event believed to be a meteotsunami, which occurred on October 14th, 2016, off of the Pacific West Coast and was measured by the radar. In the first two cases, the synthetic tsunami signal is superimposed onto the radar signal by way of a current memory term; in the third case, the tsunami signature is present within the radar data. In light of these test cases, we develop a detection methodology based on the TCA, using a correlation contrast function, and show that in all three cases the algorithm is able to trigger a timely early warning.

  17. Radar and Lidar Radar DEM

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liskovich, Diana; Simard, Marc

    2011-01-01

    Using radar and lidar data, the aim is to improve 3D rendering of terrain, including digital elevation models (DEM) and estimates of vegetation height and biomass in a variety of forest types and terrains. The 3D mapping of vegetation structure and the analysis are useful to determine the role of forest in climate change (carbon cycle), in providing habitat and as a provider of socio-economic services. This in turn will lead to potential for development of more effective land-use management. The first part of the project was to characterize the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission DEM error with respect to ICESat/GLAS point estimates of elevation. We investigated potential trends with latitude, canopy height, signal to noise ratio (SNR), number of LiDAR waveform peaks, and maximum peak width. Scatter plots were produced for each variable and were fitted with 1st and 2nd degree polynomials. Higher order trends were visually inspected through filtering with a mean and median filter. We also assessed trends in the DEM error variance. Finally, a map showing how DEM error was geographically distributed globally was created.

  18. Modeling Surface Roughness to Estimate Surface Moisture Using Radarsat-2 Quad Polarimetric SAR Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nurtyawan, R.; Saepuloh, A.; Budiharto, A.; Wikantika, K.

    2016-08-01

    Microwave backscattering from the earth's surface depends on several parameters such as surface roughness and dielectric constant of surface materials. The two parameters related to water content and porosity are crucial for estimating soil moisture. The soil moisture is an important parameter for ecological study and also a factor to maintain energy balance of land surface and atmosphere. Direct roughness measurements to a large area require extra time and cost. Heterogeneity roughness scale for some applications such as hydrology, climate, and ecology is a problem which could lead to inaccuracies of modeling. In this study, we modeled surface roughness using Radasat-2 quad Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) data. The statistical approaches to field roughness measurements were used to generate an appropriate roughness model. This modeling uses a physical SAR approach to predicts radar backscattering coefficient in the parameter of radar configuration (wavelength, polarization, and incidence angle) and soil parameters (surface roughness and dielectric constant). Surface roughness value is calculated using a modified Campbell and Shepard model in 1996. The modification was applied by incorporating the backscattering coefficient (σ°) of quad polarization HH, HV and VV. To obtain empirical surface roughness model from SAR backscattering intensity, we used forty-five sample points from field roughness measurements. We selected paddy field in Indramayu district, West Java, Indonesia as the study area. This area was selected due to intensive decreasing of rice productivity in the Northern Coast region of West Java. Third degree polynomial is the most suitable data fitting with coefficient of determination R2 and RMSE are about 0.82 and 1.18 cm, respectively. Therefore, this model is used as basis to generate the map of surface roughness.

  19. Efficient Ways to Learn Weather Radar Polarimetry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cao, Qing; Yeary, M. B.; Zhang, Guifu

    2012-01-01

    The U.S. weather radar network is currently being upgraded with dual-polarization capability. Weather radar polarimetry is an interdisciplinary area of engineering and meteorology. This paper presents efficient ways to learn weather radar polarimetry through several basic and practical topics. These topics include: 1) hydrometeor scattering model…

  20. Terahertz radar cross section measurements

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Iwaszczuk, Krzysztof; Heiselberg, Henning; Jepsen, Peter Uhd

    2010-01-01

    We perform angle- and frequency-resolved radar cross section (RCS) measurements on objects at terahertz frequencies. Our RCS measurements are performed on a scale model aircraft of size 5-10 cm in polar and azimuthal configurations, and correspond closely to RCS measurements with conventional radar...

  1. Inversion for Refractivity Parameters Using a Dynamic Adaptive Cuckoo Search with Crossover Operator Algorithm

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhihua Zhang

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Using the RFC technique to estimate refractivity parameters is a complex nonlinear optimization problem. In this paper, an improved cuckoo search (CS algorithm is proposed to deal with this problem. To enhance the performance of the CS algorithm, a parameter dynamic adaptive operation and crossover operation were integrated into the standard CS (DACS-CO. Rechenberg’s 1/5 criteria combined with learning factor were used to control the parameter dynamic adaptive adjusting process. The crossover operation of genetic algorithm was utilized to guarantee the population diversity. The new hybrid algorithm has better local search ability and contributes to superior performance. To verify the ability of the DACS-CO algorithm to estimate atmospheric refractivity parameters, the simulation data and real radar clutter data are both implemented. The numerical experiments demonstrate that the DACS-CO algorithm can provide an effective method for near-real-time estimation of the atmospheric refractivity profile from radar clutter.

  2. Universal Library for Building Radar Operator Interface

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. A. Karankevich

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The article contains the results of the development of a software library, used for building software interfaces for radars being developed in BMSTU Radioelectronic Technics Scientific and Research Institute. The library is a software application library written in C++ using Qt and OpenGL libraries.The article describes the requirements, that the library is supposed to meet, in particular — cross-platform capabilities and versatility of the solution. The data types, that library uses, are described. The description of theinterface elements developed is shown, and some pictures of their operation are given.The article shows the main interface elements used. They are: «Matrix» that shows twodimensional data, «Waterfall», that is used for time scanning of the parameter specified, and «Plan Position Indicator» that shows circular scan from surveillance radar without geometric distortions.The part «Library implementation» shows the example of radiolocation station interface, that was based on this library, used in the working model of ultrashortpulse radar. Some results of the operation of this interface are also shown. The experiment shows the system working with two people in the field. As people start to move, the system becomes capable of distinguishing moving targets and stationary surface. The article shows the system operation the same way as the system operator can see it through his interface.The conclusion contains brief results of the development, the sphere of application of the software, and the prospects of the further development of the library.

  3. Radar ornithology and the conservation of migratory birds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sidney A. Gauthreaux; Carroll G. Belser

    2005-01-01

    It is possible to study with surveillance radar the movements of migrating birds in the atmosphere at different spatial scales. At a spatial scale within a range of 6 kilometers, high-resolution, 3-centimeter wavelength surveillance radar (e.g. BIRDRAD) can detect the departure of migrants from different types of habitat within a few kilometers of the radar. The radar...

  4. Real-Time Ligand Binding Pocket Database Search Using Local Surface Descriptors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chikhi, Rayan; Sael, Lee; Kihara, Daisuke

    2010-01-01

    Due to the increasing number of structures of unknown function accumulated by ongoing structural genomics projects, there is an urgent need for computational methods for characterizing protein tertiary structures. As functions of many of these proteins are not easily predicted by conventional sequence database searches, a legitimate strategy is to utilize structure information in function characterization. Of a particular interest is prediction of ligand binding to a protein, as ligand molecule recognition is a major part of molecular function of proteins. Predicting whether a ligand molecule binds a protein is a complex problem due to the physical nature of protein-ligand interactions and the flexibility of both binding sites and ligand molecules. However, geometric and physicochemical complementarity is observed between the ligand and its binding site in many cases. Therefore, ligand molecules which bind to a local surface site in a protein can be predicted by finding similar local pockets of known binding ligands in the structure database. Here, we present two representations of ligand binding pockets and utilize them for ligand binding prediction by pocket shape comparison. These representations are based on mapping of surface properties of binding pockets, which are compactly described either by the two dimensional pseudo-Zernike moments or the 3D Zernike descriptors. These compact representations allow a fast real-time pocket searching against a database. Thorough benchmark study employing two different datasets show that our representations are competitive with the other existing methods. Limitations and potentials of the shape-based methods as well as possible improvements are discussed. PMID:20455259

  5. Quantification of Reflection Patterns in Ground-Penetrating Radar Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moysey, S.; Knight, R. J.; Jol, H. M.; Allen-King, R. M.; Gaylord, D. R.

    2005-12-01

    Radar facies analysis provides a way of interpreting the large-scale structure of the subsurface from ground-penetrating radar (GPR) data. Radar facies are often distinguished from each other by the presence of patterns, such as flat-lying, dipping, or chaotic reflections, in different regions of a radar image. When these patterns can be associated with radar facies in a repeated and predictable manner we refer to them as `radar textures'. While it is often possible to qualitatively differentiate between radar textures visually, pattern recognition tools, like neural networks, require a quantitative measure to discriminate between them. We investigate whether currently available tools, such as instantaneous attributes or metrics adapted from standard texture analysis techniques, can be used to improve the classification of radar facies. To this end, we use a neural network to perform cross-validation tests that assess the efficacy of different textural measures for classifying radar facies in GPR data collected from the William River delta, Saskatchewan, Canada. We found that the highest classification accuracies (>93%) were obtained for measures of texture that preserve information about the spatial arrangement of reflections in the radar image, e.g., spatial covariance. Lower accuracy (87%) was obtained for classifications based directly on windows of amplitude data extracted from the radar image. Measures that did not account for the spatial arrangement of reflections in the image, e.g., instantaneous attributes and amplitude variance, yielded classification accuracies of less than 65%. Optimal classifications were obtained for textural measures that extracted sufficient information from the radar data to discriminate between radar facies but were insensitive to other facies specific characteristics. For example, the rotationally invariant Fourier-Mellin transform delivered better classification results than the spatial covariance because dip angle of the

  6. Potential for observing and discriminating impact craters and comparable volcanic landforms on Magellan radar images

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ford, J.P.

    1989-01-01

    Observations of small terrestrial craters by Seasat synthetic aperture radar (SAR) at high resolution (approx. 25 m) and of comparatively large Venusian craters by Venera 15/16 images at low resolution (1000 to 2000 m) and shorter wavelength show similarities in the radar responses to crater morphology. At low incidence angles, the responses are dominated by large scale slope effects on the order of meters; consequently it is difficult to locate the precise position of crater rims on the images. Abrupt contrasts in radar response to changing slope (hence incidence angle) across a crater produce sharp tonal boundaries normal to the illumination. Crater morphology that is radially symmetrical appears on images to have bilateral symmetry parallel to the illumination vector. Craters are compressed in the distal sector and drawn out in the proximal sector. At higher incidence angles obtained with the viewing geometry of SIR-A, crater morphology appears less compressed on the images. At any radar incidence angle, the distortion of a crater outline is minimal across the medial sector, in a direction normal to the illumination. Radar bright halos surround some craters imaged by SIR-A and Venera 15 and 16. The brightness probably denotes the radar response to small scale surface roughness of the surrounding ejecta blankets. Similarities in the radar responses of small terrestrial impact craters and volcanic craters of comparable dimensions emphasize the difficulties in discriminating an impact origin from a volcanic origin in the images. Similar difficulties will probably apply in discriminating the origin of small Venusian craters, if they exist. Because of orbital considerations, the nominal incidence angel of Magellan radar at the center of the imaging swath will vary from about 45 deg at 10 deg N latitude to about 16 deg at the north pole and at 70 deg S latitude. Impact craters and comparable volcanic landforms will show bilateral symmetry

  7. Development Of Signal Detection For Radar Navigation System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Theingi Win Hlaing

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available This paper aims to evaluate the performance of target detection in the presence of sea clutter. Radar detection of a background of unwanted clutter due to echoes from sea clutter or land is a problem of interest in the radar field. Radar detector has been developed by assuming the radar clutter is Gaussian distributed. However as technology emerges the radar distribution is seen to deviates from the Gaussian assumption. Thus detectors designs based on Gaussian assumption are no longer optimum for detection in non-Gaussian nature. The theory of target detection in Gaussian distributed clutter has been well established and the closed form of the detection performances can be easily obtained. However that is not the case in non-Gaussian clutter distributions. The operation of radar detection is determined by radar detection theory with different types of Swerling target models such as Swerling I II III IV and V. By using MATLAB these signal detection techniques are developed.

  8. Observation and modeling of tide- and wind-induced surface currents in Galway Bay

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lei REN

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available A high-frequency radar system has been deployed in Galway Bay, a semi-enclosed bay on the west coast of Ireland. The system provides surface currents with fine spatial resolution every hour. Prior to its use for model validation, the accuracy of the radar data was verified through comparison with measurements from acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs and a good correlation between time series of surface current speeds and directions obtained from radar data and ADCP data. Since Galway Bay is located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, it is subject to relatively windy conditions, and surface currents are therefore strongly wind-driven. With a view to assimilating the radar data for forecasting purposes, a three-dimensional numerical model of Galway Bay, the Environmental Fluid Dynamics Code (EFDC, was developed based on a terrain-following vertical (sigma coordinate system. This study shows that the performance and accuracy of the numerical model, particularly with regard to tide- and wind-induced surface currents, are sensitive to the vertical layer structure. Results of five models using different layer structures are presented and compared with radar measurements. A variable vertical structure with thin layers at the bottom and the surface and thicker layers in the middle of the water column was found to be the optimal layer structure for reproduction of tide- and wind-induced surface currents. This structure ensures that wind shear can properly propagate from the surface layer to the sub-surface layers, thereby ensuring that wind forcing is not overdamped by tidal forcing. The vertical layer structure affects not only the velocities at the surface layer but also the velocities further down in the water column.

  9. POLCAL - POLARIMETRIC RADAR CALIBRATION

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vanzyl, J.

    1994-01-01

    Calibration of polarimetric radar systems is a field of research in which great progress has been made over the last few years. POLCAL (Polarimetric Radar Calibration) is a software tool intended to assist in the calibration of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) systems. In particular, POLCAL calibrates Stokes matrix format data produced as the standard product by the NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) airborne imaging synthetic aperture radar (AIRSAR). POLCAL was designed to be used in conjunction with data collected by the NASA/JPL AIRSAR system. AIRSAR is a multifrequency (6 cm, 24 cm, and 68 cm wavelength), fully polarimetric SAR system which produces 12 x 12 km imagery at 10 m resolution. AIRSTAR was designed as a testbed for NASA's Spaceborne Imaging Radar program. While the images produced after 1991 are thought to be calibrated (phase calibrated, cross-talk removed, channel imbalance removed, and absolutely calibrated), POLCAL can and should still be used to check the accuracy of the calibration and to correct it if necessary. Version 4.0 of POLCAL is an upgrade of POLCAL version 2.0 released to AIRSAR investigators in June, 1990. New options in version 4.0 include automatic absolute calibration of 89/90 data, distributed target analysis, calibration of nearby scenes with calibration parameters from a scene with corner reflectors, altitude or roll angle corrections, and calibration of errors introduced by known topography. Many sources of error can lead to false conclusions about the nature of scatterers on the surface. Errors in the phase relationship between polarization channels result in incorrect synthesis of polarization states. Cross-talk, caused by imperfections in the radar antenna itself, can also lead to error. POLCAL reduces cross-talk and corrects phase calibration without the use of ground calibration equipment. Removing the antenna patterns during SAR processing also forms a very important part of the calibration of SAR data. Errors in the

  10. Observation of snowfall with a low-power FM-CW K-band radar (Micro Rain Radar)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kneifel, Stefan; Maahn, Maximilian; Peters, Gerhard; Simmer, Clemens

    2011-06-01

    Quantifying snowfall intensity especially under arctic conditions is a challenge because wind and snow drift deteriorate estimates obtained from both ground-based gauges and disdrometers. Ground-based remote sensing with active instruments might be a solution because they can measure well above drifting snow and do not suffer from flow distortions by the instrument. Clear disadvantages are, however, the dependency of e.g. radar returns on snow habit which might lead to similar large uncertainties. Moreover, high sensitivity radars are still far too costly to operate in a network and under harsh conditions. In this paper we compare returns from a low-cost, low-power vertically pointing FM-CW radar (Micro Rain Radar, MRR) operating at 24.1 GHz with returns from a 35.5 GHz cloud radar (MIRA36) for dry snowfall during a 6-month observation period at an Alpine station (Environmental Research Station Schneefernerhaus, UFS) at 2,650 m height above sea level. The goal was to quantify the potential and limitations of the MRR in relation to what is achievable by a cloud radar. The operational MRR procedures to derive standard radar variables like effective reflectivity factor ( Z e) or the mean Doppler velocity ( W) had to be modified for snowfall since the MRR was originally designed for rain observations. Since the radar returns from snowfall are weaker than from comparable rainfall, the behavior of the MRR close to its detection threshold has been analyzed and a method is proposed to quantify the noise level of the MRR based on clear sky observations. By converting the resulting MRR- Z e into 35.5 GHz equivalent Z e values, a remaining difference below 1 dBz with slightly higher values close to the noise threshold could be obtained. Due to the much higher sensitivity of MIRA36, the transition of the MRR from the true signal to noise can be observed, which agrees well with the independent clear sky noise estimate. The mean Doppler velocity differences between both radars

  11. Modern Radar Techniques for Geophysical Applications: Two Examples

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arokiasamy, B. J.; Bianchi, C.; Sciacca, U.; Tutone, G.; Zirizzotti, A.; Zuccheretti, E.

    2005-01-01

    The last decade of the evolution of radar was heavily influenced by the rapid increase in the information processing capabilities. Advances in solid state radio HF devices, digital technology, computing architectures and software offered the designers to develop very efficient radars. In designing modern radars the emphasis goes towards the simplification of the system hardware, reduction of overall power, which is compensated by coding and real time signal processing techniques. Radars are commonly employed in geophysical radio soundings like probing the ionosphere; stratosphere-mesosphere measurement, weather forecast, GPR and radio-glaciology etc. In the laboratorio di Geofisica Ambientale of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), Rome, Italy, we developed two pulse compression radars. The first is a HF radar called AIS-INGV; Advanced Ionospheric Sounder designed both for the purpose of research and for routine service of the HF radio wave propagation forecast. The second is a VHF radar called GLACIORADAR, which will be substituting the high power envelope radar used by the Italian Glaciological group. This will be employed in studying the sub glacial structures of Antarctica, giving information about layering, the bed rock and sub glacial lakes if present. These are low power radars, which heavily rely on advanced hardware and powerful real time signal processing. Additional information is included in the original extended abstract.

  12. UAV-Borne Profiling Radar for Forest Research

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yuwei Chen

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Microwave Radar is an attractive solution for forest mapping and inventories because microwave signals penetrates into the forest canopy and the backscattering signal can provide information regarding the whole forest structure. Satellite-borne and airborne imaging radars have been used in forest resources mapping for many decades. However, their accuracy with respect to the main forest inventory attributes substantially varies depending on the wavelength and techniques used in the estimation. Systems providing canopy backscatter as a function of canopy height are, practically speaking, missing. Therefore, there is a need for a radar system that would enable the scientific community to better understand the radar backscatter response from the forest canopy. Consequently, we undertook a research study to develop an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV-borne profiling (i.e., waveform radar that could be used to improve the understanding of the radar backscatter response for forestry mapping and inventories. A frequency modulation continuous waveform (FMCW profiling radar, termed FGI-Tomoradar, was introduced, designed and tested. One goal is the total weight of the whole system is less than 7 kg, including the radar system and georeferencing system, with centimetre-level positioning accuracy. Achieving this weight goal would enable the FGI-Tomoradar system to be installed on the Mini-UAV platform. The prototype system had all four linear polarization measuring capabilities, with bistatic configuration in Ku-band. In system performance tests in this study, FGI-Tomoradar was mounted on a manned helicopter together with a Riegl VQ-480-U laser scanner and tested in several flight campaigns performed at the Evo site, Finland. Airborne laser scanning data was simultaneously collected to investigate the differences and similarities of the outputs for the same target area for better understanding the penetration of the microwave signal into the forest canopy

  13. Lunar Penetrating Radar onboard the Chang'e-3 mission

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fang Guang-You; Zhou Bin; Ji Yi-Cai; Zhang Qun-Ying; Shen Shao-Xiang; Li Yu-Xi; Guan Hong-Fei; Tang Chuan-Jun; Gao Yun-Ze; Lu Wei; Ye Sheng-Bo; Han Hai-Dong; Zheng Jin; Wang Shu-Zhi

    2014-01-01

    Lunar Penetrating Radar (LPR) is one of the important scientific instruments onboard the Chang'e-3 spacecraft. Its scientific goals are the mapping of lunar regolith and detection of subsurface geologic structures. This paper describes the goals of the mission, as well as the basic principles, design, composition and achievements of the LPR. Finally, experiments on a glacier and the lunar surface are analyzed

  14. Weather radar rainfall data in urban hydrology

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thorndahl, Søren; Einfalt, Thomas; Willems, Patrick

    2017-01-01

    Application of weather radar data in urban hydrological applications has evolved significantly during the past decade as an alternative to traditional rainfall observations with rain gauges. Advances in radar hardware, data processing, numerical models, and emerging fields within urban hydrology...... necessitate an updated review of the state of the art in such radar rainfall data and applications. Three key areas with significant advances over the past decade have been identified: (1) temporal and spatial resolution of rainfall data required for different types of hydrological applications, (2) rainfall...... estimation, radar data adjustment and data quality, and (3) nowcasting of radar rainfall and real-time applications. Based on these three fields of research, the paper provides recommendations based on an updated overview of shortcomings, gains, and novel developments in relation to urban hydrological...

  15. Weather radar rainfall data in urban hydrology

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thorndahl, Søren; Einfalt, Thomas; Willems, Patrick

    2017-01-01

    estimation, radar data adjustment and data quality, and (3) nowcasting of radar rainfall and real-time applications. Based on these three fields of research, the paper provides recommendations based on an updated overview of shortcomings, gains, and novel developments in relation to urban hydrological...... applications. The paper also reviews how the focus in urban hydrology research has shifted over the last decade to fields such as climate change impacts, resilience of urban areas to hydrological extremes, and online prediction/warning systems. It is discussed how radar rainfall data can add value......Application of weather radar data in urban hydrological applications has evolved significantly during the past decade as an alternative to traditional rainfall observations with rain gauges. Advances in radar hardware, data processing, numerical models, and emerging fields within urban hydrology...

  16. Meteor observation by the Kyoto meteor radar

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kato, S.; Tsuda, T.

    1987-01-01

    The Kyoto Meteor Radar is a monostatic coherent pulsed Doppler radar operating on the frequency of 31.57 MH. The system is computer controlled and uses radio interferometry for echo height determination. The antenna, an improvement, can be directed either to the north or the east. The system has been continuously collecting data on winds at meteor heights by radar observation. The meteor echo rate was also measured, the echo rate distribution with height and the daily variation in height integrated echo rate are discussed. Investigations of atmospheric tides are being pursued by cooperative observations. A novel approach to the study of gravity waves was attempted using the meteor radar which is able to detect the horizontal propagation of the waves by observing the changing phase through the region illuminated by the radar

  17. The Impact of DEM Resolution on Relocating Radar Altimetry Data Over Ice Sheets

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fredenslund Levinsen, Joanna; Simonsen, Sebastian Bjerregaard; Sørensen, Louise Sandberg

    2016-01-01

    for correcting for such mispointing errors. Here, two techniques are applied to observations near Jakobshavn Isbræ, acquired with Envisat’s Radar Altimeter(RA-2). The apriori knowledge on the surface topography is obtained from a digital elevation model. The methods relocate the measurement location horizontally...

  18. Satellite based radar interferometry to estimate large-scale soil water depletion from clay shrinkage: possibilities and limitations

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Brake, te B.; Hanssen, R.F.; Ploeg, van der M.J.; Rooij, de G.H.

    2013-01-01

    Satellite-based radar interferometry is a technique capable of measuring small surface elevation changes at large scales and with a high resolution. In vadose zone hydrology, it has been recognized for a long time that surface elevation changes due to swell and shrinkage of clayey soils can serve as

  19. Radar Echo Scattering Modeling and Image Simulations of Full-scale Convex Rough Targets at Terahertz Frequencies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gao Jingkun

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Echo simulation is a precondition for developing radar imaging systems, algorithms, and subsequent applications. Electromagnetic scattering modeling of the target is key to echo simulation. At terahertz (THz frequencies, targets are usually of ultra-large electrical size that makes applying classical electromagnetic calculation methods unpractical. In contrast, the short wavelength makes the surface roughness of targets a factor that cannot be ignored, and this makes the traditional echo simulation methods based on point scattering hypothesis in applicable. Modeling the scattering characteristics of targets and efficiently generating its radar echoes in THz bands has become a problem that must be solved. In this paper, a hierarchical semi-deterministic modeling method is proposed. A full-wave algorithm of rough surfaces is used to calculate the scattered field of facets. Then, the scattered fields of all facets are transformed into the target coordinate system and coherently summed. Finally, the radar echo containing phase information can be obtained. Using small-scale rough models, our method is compared with the standard high-frequency numerical method, which verifies the effectiveness of the proposed method. Imaging results of a full-scale cone-shape target is presented, and the scattering model and echo generation problem of the full-scale convex targets with rough surfaces in THz bands are preliminary solved; this lays the foundation for future research on imaging regimes and algorithms.

  20. Raindrop Size Distribution in Different Climatic Regimes from Disdrometer and Dual-Polarized Radar Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bringi, V. N.; Chandrasekar, V.; Hubbert, J.; Gorgucci, E.; Randeu, W. L.; Schoenhuber, M.

    2003-01-01

    The application of polarimetric radar data to the retrieval of raindrop size distribution parameters and rain rate in samples of convective and stratiform rain types is presented. Data from the Colorado State University (CSU), CHILL, NCAR S-band polarimetric (S-Pol), and NASA Kwajalein radars are analyzed for the statistics and functional relation of these parameters with rain rate. Surface drop size distribution measurements using two different disdrometers (2D video and RD-69) from a number of climatic regimes are analyzed and compared with the radar retrievals in a statistical and functional approach. The composite statistics based on disdrometer and radar retrievals suggest that, on average, the two parameters (generalized intercept and median volume diameter) for stratiform rain distributions lie on a straight line with negative slope, which appears to be consistent with variations in the microphysics of stratiform precipitation (melting of larger, dry snow particles versus smaller, rimed ice particles). In convective rain, `maritime-like' and `continental-like' clusters could be identified in the same two-parameter space that are consistent with the different multiplicative coefficients in the Z = aR1.5 relations quoted in the literature for maritime and continental regimes.