Portable Bistatic Weather Radar

The US military uses weather radar data and products to enable military decision-makers to obtain a timely and accurate picture of the operational environment and to maintain battlespace awareness. Weather radar data are provided through a number of sources: domestically the military relies on the NEXRAD (WSR-88D) weather radar network, but overseas weather radar data must be provided through organic sources. Currently, the Air Force and Marine Corps operate a commercial X-band Portable Doppler Radar (PDR or AN/TMS-2) which provides short-range weather coverage in a transportable package that can be deployed rapidly wherever radar data are needed. Although these existing weather radar sensors provide useful and timely weather data product to the warfighter, traditional monostatic weather radars often have difficulty providing accurate wind information and are limited in coverage to a relatively small range window (particularly for higher frequency radars operating in the X-band). In areas where winds are problematic to the operational warfighter’s tempo, such as areas where dust and sandstorms are prevalent or airfields and landing areas, more accurate wind information would greatly complement the existing sensor systems.

The proposed solution to this need, the Portable Bistatic Weather Radar; requires a portable bi-static radar sensor that can be easily fielded by forward deployed Air Force operational weather squadrons while improving the wind detection coverage and accuracy of both existing radar sensors and new monostatic radar sensors. The BCI concept for the bi-static weather radar is to develop a modular monostatic radar transmitter and receiver system that can be used as a standalone radar network or that can augment existing radar systems such as the current and future Portable Doppler Radar (PDR) systems or weather processing equipped tactical radars such as the TPS-77, TPS-75 and others. The bi-static radar reception capability can also potentially augment traditional tactical radars by executing a passive radar target detection mode through software reconfiguration of the bi-static nodes.

Under a Phase I SBIR contract, BCI recently completed a proof-of-concept study which determined the expected performance of a bi-static system at X-band using the Air Force's Portable Doppler Radar systems. This paper will discuss those results, as well as the technical approach of adding a bi-static capability to the radar system. BCI was recently selected for a Phase II award based on this work, in which BCI will develop and test a prototype bi-static system based on a modified PDR radar and a custom bi-static receiver and software processor. This paper will also discuss the Phase II design architecture approach and expected performance of the final prototype system.