A Novel Portable Phased Array Radar for Meteorological Remote Sensing

The Portable Weather Radar (PWR) demonstrates a robust radar system to substantially improve weather observation for the US Air Force (USAF). The PWR uses solid state, distributed phased array RF electronics, implemented as a hybrid phased array and mechanical spin, scanning system. PWR supports electronic scan in elevation and mechanical scan in azimuth to provide full hemispherical volumetric coverage for weather surveillance. The phase-spin architecture removes a mechanical elevation gimbal to significantly decrease system costs and increase lifetime. Furthermore, the radar control system utilizes a System on Chip (SoC) to leverage an embedded Linux platform for ease-of-use as well as dedicated custom FPGA logic for faultless real time radar operations and data archiving. The radar data products are provided in a variety of file formats for compatibility with open-source and proprietary weather forecasting software applications. PWR takes advantage of faster scan times in elevation using electronic beam scanning and simultaneously overcomes the inherent differences in gain-phase of these electronic elevation beams using precise calibration methods. Level 2 products are generated and compared with CSU-CHILL radar. Level 3 products are also developed and presented.