Publications

The Weather Systems Processor (WSP) is an enhancement for the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) current generation Airport Surveillance Radars (ASR-9) that provides fully automated detection of microburst and gust front wind shear phenomena, estimates of storm cell movement and extrapolated future postion, and 10- and 20-minute predictions of the future postion of gust fronts. The WSP also generates six-level weather reflectivity free of anomalous propagation induced ground clutter breakthrough. Alphanumeric and graphical displays provide WSP-generated weather information to air traffic controllers and their supervisors. This report describes the hardware, interfaces, timing and digital signal extraction from the ASR-9 necessary to support the WSP. The digital interface circuitry between the WSP and the ASR-9, the control functions associated with the WSP, and the strategies for performing system test functions are described

A high stability, C-band transmitter capable of supporting -68 dBr subclutter visibility over a wide range of pulse widths and duty factors was developed for use in a multimode, battlefield surveillance radar. The transmitter was mode-switched between groups of 1/4, 20 and 65 microsecond radar pulses and long duration (100ms) FSK burst. A key feature was the use of a high speed, interpulse regulator to maintain proper TWT voltage and to limit ripple independent of waveform without the need for excessively large energy storage. Actual measured performance met the 100 mV cathode ripple specification without the use of PKF synchronization, independent of PKI, duty cycle and pulse width and was confirmed via direct evaluation of electrode voltages, serrodyne phase jitter and the radar pulsed-Doppler spectrum.