Frequency diversity waveforms for millimeter wavelength cloud radars

The trade-off between maximum unambiguous range and maximum unambiguous velocity for pulsed Doppler radars has been well known as range-velocity ambiguity dilemma. The range-velocity ambiguity is a function of the pulse repetition frequency and wavelength of the radar. The tradeoff becomes very stringent for millimeter wave scanning radars used for targeted cloud observations. Millimeter wavelength radars (Ka-band and W-band) operate at higher pulse repetition frequencies to make observation with smaller coverage in range and have acceptable Nyquist velocities. Traditional methods of using phase coded and staggered waveforms used will need to be augmented to resolve range and velocity ambiguities. Frequency diversity waveforms with phase coding and staggering are proposed to resolve range and velocity ambiguity for scanning millimeter wave cloud radars. A simulation study is carried out at Ka-band and W-band to evaluate the frequency diversity waveforms to mitigate range velocity ambiguity at millimeter wavelengths. Preliminary observation of the data from SACR (Scanning ARM Cloud Radars) with frequency diversity will be used to evaluate the methodology.