Tropospheric Wind Profiling Using Radar 'Interferometry' (A Feasibility Study of a Compact Mobile System)

摘要

The authors compare the feasibility of using three-beam Doppler, spaced-antenna (SA), and Imaging Doppler Interferometer (IDI) techniques for tropospheric wind profiling at 400 MHz. The SA and IDI methods appear to be the most suited for a compact mobile system because narrow beams and therefore large antennas are not required. The SA technique is a proven technology in the troposphere at 50 MHz. An extension to a 400 MHz system appears to be straight-forward. They found the IDI technique for measuring tropospheric winds at 400 MHz to be particularly promising though yet unproven technology. Advantages include a potential capability of high resolution imaging of the wind field in the radar volume not attainable by the SA method. Disadvantages include the necessity for having several highly localized and persistent scattering centers in the volume, and the inherently low effective signal-to-noise ratios associated with the shorer dwell times needed to locate to detect the scatterers, which results in higher power requirements. Under ideal conditions, they expect uncertainties in the IDI wind estimates to be comparable to those obtained with the SA technique.