TDWR (Terminal Doppler Weather Radar) PRF (Pulse Repetition Frequency) Selection Criteria,
Abstract
The Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR) system shall provide high quality Doppler radar data on weather phenomena near high traffic airports. These data shall be used in real time by automated TDWR algorithms to detect weather situations which may be hazardous to the safe operation of aircraft within the vicinity of the airport. One of the major factors which could cause the degradation of the quality of these TDWR data is obscuration by 'distant' storm cells. This obscuration is caused by storms located beyond the range interval being sampled by the radar, yet whose radar echo ambiguously folds within the range interval of interest. These range aliased echoes could trigger false detections by the algorithms, and/or cause actual hazardous situations near the airport to remain undetected. By carefully selecting the pulse repetition frequency (PRF) of the radar, range obscuration from distant storms can be minimized over specified airport regions. This document describes techniques for predicting the obscuration as a function of PRF, and details the criteria which shall be used by the TDWR system to automatically and adaptively select an optimal PRF in order to minimize these obscuration effects. Keywords: Weather radar, Radar pulse, Repetition frequency, Radar range obscuration, Radar range aliasing.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 15, 1988
- Accession Number
- ADA193089
Entities
People
- S. C. Crocker
Organizations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology