A general surveillance mode for off-the-grid DCAS radars

Distributed networks of short-range radars offer the potential to observe winds and rainfall at high spatial resolution in volumes of the troposphere that are unobserved by today's long-range weather radars. Future distributed radar networks will involve thousands of small radars, and the design of these systems will be conducted in a trade-space that balances requirements among radar sensing, communications, networking, and distributed computation functions while addressing infrastructure constraints (such as size, weight, space, and prime power requirements) to achieve cost-effective designs. “Off-The-Grid” (OTG) weather radar are envisioned as self-contained networks of small remote-sensing / communication / computation nodes, each occupying a volume of 1.5 m3 and capable of operating independent of the wired power / communication infrastructure. An OTG radar would cover the volume of atmosphere to 10 km range and 3 km in altitude. A network of OTG radars would maximize the lifetime of the network by dynamically adjusting node parameters such as volume coverage pattern, pulse repetition frequency and update time. This paper will present an operating mode for general surveillance under clear air conditions. The general surveillance mode is to be compatible with nearby WSR-88D radars while consume less power than is generated in order to charge the systems batteries. Simulation of the volume coverage pattern and comparison with the WSR-88D VCPs will be presented.