Products
A Ka-band Doppler polarimetric cloud radar is outfitted with a 20 W GaN solid-state power amplifier. The radar has been developed on the basis of its magnetron-based predecessor (http://radar.kharkov.com/index.php?s=3&p=29&n=75) in the course of movement toward all solid-state low-cost, compact millimeter wave cloud radars. The upgrade has been made through replacing a transmitter alone and adding some extra routines in the digital signal processor to implement the pulse compression technique. The radar sensitivity no worse than -28 dBZ at 5 km is achieved.
Radar essential characteristics
Frequency Range | 35000 … 35200 MHz |
Peak Output Power | 20 W |
Pulse Duration | 0.1 … 100 µs |
Maximum Duty Cycle | up to 100% |
Maximum PRR | 20 kHz |
Receiver Noise Figure | 3.5 dB |
Losses Tx/Rx | 0.5/2 dB |
Antenna Diameter | 0.5 m |
Antenna Gain | 43 dB |
Antenna Beamwidth | 1.2° |
Polarization Cross-Isolation | > 35 dB |
SNR of the power spectra obtained by Doppler processing | >75 dB |
Number of Range Bins | 1000 |
Dimensions | 435×380×300 mm3 |
Weight | 30 kg |
Cooling | Natural convection |
Temperature Range | -40 … +60 °C |
Supply Voltage | AC, 90 … 250 V, 50/60 Hz |
Radar products | signal-to-noise ratio, linear depolarization ratio, 1-st and 2-nd moments of the Doppler spectrum for each range bin full Doppler spectrum data for both co- and cross-components for a chosen bin |
Radar operational modes
Mode | Pulse width, µs | PRF, Hz | Range bin, m | Blind/Max range, m | Min dBZ | @km | |
SSPA | Magnetron | ||||||
Short | 0.48 | 14000 | 72 | 200/8000 | -29 | -42 | 1 |
Middle | 6 | 9000 | 36 | 1000/15000 | -28 | -32 | 3 |
Far | 20 | 7000 | 36 | 3100/17000 | -28 | -27 | 5 |
Radar operation example
Weather conditions: light-to-moderate snowing condition at the outside temperature close to zero.
Fig.1 Range reflectivity profile snapshot and 5 minute time evolution map
Fig.2 LDR range profile snapshot and 5 minute time evolution map