The Next-Generation Multimission U.S. Surveillance Radar Network
The U.S. Government operates seven distinct radar networks, providing weather and aircraft surveillance for public weather services, air traffic control, and homeland defense. In this paper, we describe a next-generation multimission phased-array radar (MPAR) concept that could provide enhanced weat...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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American Meteorological Society
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110802 |
| _version_ | 1826190113031323648 |
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| author | Benner, William E. Torok, Garth S. Weber, Mark E. Cho, John Y Herd, Jeffrey S. Flavin, James M |
| author2 | Lincoln Laboratory |
| author_facet | Lincoln Laboratory Benner, William E. Torok, Garth S. Weber, Mark E. Cho, John Y Herd, Jeffrey S. Flavin, James M |
| author_sort | Benner, William E. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The U.S. Government operates seven distinct radar networks, providing weather and aircraft surveillance for public weather services, air traffic control, and homeland defense. In this paper, we describe a next-generation multimission phased-array radar (MPAR) concept that could provide enhanced weather and aircraft surveillance services with potentially lower life cycle costs than multiple single-function radar networks. We describe current U.S. national weather and aircraft surveillance radar networks and show that by reducing overlapping airspace coverage, MPAR could reduce the total number of radars required by approximately one-third. A key finding is that weather surveillance requirements dictate the core parameters of a multimission radar—airspace coverage, aperture size, radiated power, and angular resolution. Aircraft surveillance capability can be added to a phased array weather radar at low incremental cost because the agile, electronically steered beam would allow the radar to achieve the much more rapid scan update rates needed for aircraft volume search missions, and additionally to support track modes for individual aircraft targets. We describe an MPAR system design that includes multiple transmit–receive channels and a highly digitized active phased array to generate independently steered beam clusters for weather, aircraft volume search, and aircraft track modes. For each of these modes, we discuss surveillance capability improvements that would be realized relative to today's radars. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has initiated the development of an MPAR “preprototype” that will demonstrate critical subsystem technologies and multimission operational capabilities. Initial subsystem designs have provided a solid basis for estimating MPAR costs for comparison with existing, mechanically scanned operational surveillance radars. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:35:14Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/110802 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:35:14Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | American Meteorological Society |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1108022022-09-30T09:48:09Z The Next-Generation Multimission U.S. Surveillance Radar Network Benner, William E. Torok, Garth S. Weber, Mark E. Cho, John Y Herd, Jeffrey S. Flavin, James M Lincoln Laboratory Cho, John Y. N. Weber, Mark E. Cho, John Y Herd, Jeffrey S. Flavin, James M The U.S. Government operates seven distinct radar networks, providing weather and aircraft surveillance for public weather services, air traffic control, and homeland defense. In this paper, we describe a next-generation multimission phased-array radar (MPAR) concept that could provide enhanced weather and aircraft surveillance services with potentially lower life cycle costs than multiple single-function radar networks. We describe current U.S. national weather and aircraft surveillance radar networks and show that by reducing overlapping airspace coverage, MPAR could reduce the total number of radars required by approximately one-third. A key finding is that weather surveillance requirements dictate the core parameters of a multimission radar—airspace coverage, aperture size, radiated power, and angular resolution. Aircraft surveillance capability can be added to a phased array weather radar at low incremental cost because the agile, electronically steered beam would allow the radar to achieve the much more rapid scan update rates needed for aircraft volume search missions, and additionally to support track modes for individual aircraft targets. We describe an MPAR system design that includes multiple transmit–receive channels and a highly digitized active phased array to generate independently steered beam clusters for weather, aircraft volume search, and aircraft track modes. For each of these modes, we discuss surveillance capability improvements that would be realized relative to today's radars. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has initiated the development of an MPAR “preprototype” that will demonstrate critical subsystem technologies and multimission operational capabilities. Initial subsystem designs have provided a solid basis for estimating MPAR costs for comparison with existing, mechanically scanned operational surveillance radars. United States. Federal Aviation Administration (FA8721-05-C-0002) 2017-07-21T15:49:49Z 2017-07-21T15:49:49Z 2007-11 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0003-0007 1520-0477 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110802 Weber, Mark E.; Cho, John Y. N.; Herd, Jeffrey S. et al. “The Next-Generation Multimission U.S. Surveillance Radar Network.” Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 88, 11 (November 2007): 1739–1751 © American Meteorological Society en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-88-11-1739 Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Meteorological Society Cho |
| spellingShingle | Benner, William E. Torok, Garth S. Weber, Mark E. Cho, John Y Herd, Jeffrey S. Flavin, James M The Next-Generation Multimission U.S. Surveillance Radar Network |
| title | The Next-Generation Multimission U.S. Surveillance Radar Network |
| title_full | The Next-Generation Multimission U.S. Surveillance Radar Network |
| title_fullStr | The Next-Generation Multimission U.S. Surveillance Radar Network |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Next-Generation Multimission U.S. Surveillance Radar Network |
| title_short | The Next-Generation Multimission U.S. Surveillance Radar Network |
| title_sort | next generation multimission u s surveillance radar network |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110802 |
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