Performance Evaluation of a W-Band Monopulse Radar in Rotorcraft Brownout Landing Aid Application

摘要

BAE Systems recently developed a rotorcraft brownout landing aid system technology (BLAST) to satisfy the urgent need for brownout landing capability. BLAST uses a W-band monopulse (MP) radar in conjunction with radar signal processing and synthetic display techniques to paint a three-dimensional (3-D) perspective of the landing zone (LZ) in real time. Innovative radar signal processing techniques are developed to process the radar data and generate target data vectors for 3-D image synthesis and display. Field tests are conducted to characterize the performance of BLAST with MP and non-MP (only using the sum channel of the MP radar) modes in clear and brownout conditions. Data processing and analysis are performed to evaluate the system's performance in terms of visual effect, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), target height estimation, ground-mapping effect, and false alarm rate. Both MP and non-MP modes reveal abilities to sufficiently display the 3-D volume of the LZ; the former shows advantage over the latter in providing accurate ground mapping and object height determination.