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NASA NTRS1983

The Arecibo Observatory as an MST radar

The radars and other systems at the Arecibo Observatory were designed and built, originally, for incoherent-scatter and radio-astronomy research. More recently, important additions have been made for planetary radar and artificial RF heating of the ionosphere. Although designed and built for a different application, these systems have shown to be very powerful tools for tropospheric, stratospheric and mesospheric research. The Observatory at present has two main radars: one at 430 and the other at 2380 MHz. In addition, 50-MHz MST radar work has been done using portable transmitters brought to the Observatory for this purpose. This capability will become permanent with the recent acquisition of a transmitter at this frequency. Furthermore, control and data processing systems have been developed to use the powerful HF transmitter and antennas of the HF-heating facility as an HF bistatic radar. A brief description of the four radars available at the Observatory is presented.

Woodman, R. F.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Decoders for MST radars

Decoding techniques and equipment used by MST radars are described and some recommendations for new systems are presented. Decoding can be done either by software in special-purpose (array processors, etc.) or general-purpose computers or in specially designed digital decoders. Both software and hardware decoders are discussed and the special case of decoding for bistatic radars is examined.

Woodman, R. F.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Design considerations for high-power VHF radar transceivers: The Poker Flat MST radar phase control system

Sixty-four separate 50-kW peak-power transmitters are distributed throughout the 200 x 200 meter Poker Flat MST radar antenna array. The relative phase of each transmitter is automatically controlled by a 64-channel unit located in the main building at the edge of the antenna. The phase control unit is described. In operation the RF pulse from a transmitter coupler is power divided and compared with the phase reference in a mixer. The mixer output is low-pass filtered and sampled near the center of the resulting video pulse by an amplifying sample-and-hold integrated circuit. Phase control is effected by maintaining the mixer output pulse near zero volts by amplifying the sample-and-hold output which then drives the voltage-controlled phase shifter in the direction to null the mixer output. The voltage-controlled shifter achieves over 360 deg phase shift in the range from 0.7 to 24 volts. When the voltage into the shifter tracks to either voltage limit the wrap-around control resets the voltage so that the shifter is always operating within its control range.

Ecklund, W. L.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Data processing techniques used with MST radars: A review

The data processing methods used in high power radar probing of the middle atmosphere are examined. The radar acts as a spatial filter on the small scale refractivity fluctuations in the medium. The characteristics of the received signals are related to the statistical properties of these fluctuations. A functional outline of the components of a radar system is given. Most computation intensive tasks are carried out by the processor. The processor computes a statistical function of the received signals, simultaneously for a large number of ranges. The slow fading of atmospheric signals is used to reduce the data input rate to the processor by coherent integration. The inherent range resolution of the radar experiments can be improved significant with the use of pseudonoise phase codes to modulate the transmitted pulses and a corresponding decoding operation on the received signals. Commutability of the decoding and coherent integration operations is used to obtain a significant reduction in computations. The limitations of the processors are outlined. At the next level of data reduction, the measured function is parameterized by a few spectral moments that can be related to physical processes in the medium. The problems encountered in estimating the spectral moments in the presence of strong ground clutter, external interference, and noise are discussed. The graphical and statistical analysis of the inferred parameters are outlined. The requirements for special purpose processors for MST radars are discussed.

Rastogi, P. K.↗
NASA NTRS1983

A note on the use of coherent integration in periodogram analysis of MST radar signals

The effect of coherent integration on the periodogram method to estimate the power spectra of MST radar signals is examined. The spectrum estimate usually is biased, even when care is taken to reduce the aliasing effects. Due to this bias, the signal power for Doppler shifted signals is underestimated by as much as 4 dB. The use of coherent integration in reducing the effect of aliased power line harmonics is pointed out.

Rastogi, P. K.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Signal processing at the Poker Flat MST radar

Signal processing for Mesosphere-Stratosphere-Troposphere (MST) radar is carried out by a combination of hardware in high-speed, special-purpose devices and software in a general-purpose, minicomputer/array processor. A block diagram of the signal processing system is presented, and the steps in the processing pathway are described. The current processing capabilities are given, and a system offering greater coherent integration speed is advanced which hinges upon a high speed preprocessor.

Carter, D. A.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Spectral moment estimation in MST radars

Signal processing techniques used in Mesosphere-Stratosphere-Troposphere (MST) radars are reviewed. Techniques which produce good estimates of the total power, frequency shift, and spectral width of the radar power spectra are considered. Non-linear curve fitting, autocovariance, autocorrelation, covariance, and maximum likelihood estimators are discussed.

Woodman, R. F.↗
NASA NTRS1983

MST radar data-base management

Data management for Mesospheric-Stratospheric-Tropospheric, (MST) radars is addressed. An incoherent-scatter radar data base is discussed in terms of purpose, centralization, scope, and nature of the data base management system.

Wickwar, V. B.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Middle Atmosphere Program. Handbook for MAP. Volume 14: URSI/SCOSTEP Workshop on Technical Aspects of MST Radar

Various topics relative to middle atmosphere research were discussed. meteorological and aeronomical requirements for mesosphere-stratosphere-troposphere (MST) radar networks, general circulation of the middle atmosphere, the interpretation of radar returns from clear air, spaced antenna and Doppler techniques for velocity measurement, and techniques for the study of gravity waves and turbulence are among the topics discussed.

Bowhill, S. A.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Some recent developments in the interpretation of MST radar returns from clear air (keynote paper), part 2

Mesosphere-stratosphere-troposphere (MST) radar returns from clear air come about through the interaction of electromagnetic waves with the inhomogeneous structures of refractive index in the atmosphere. In order to interpret the data correctly to obtain information concerning the dynamics of the atmosphere, one must first know how the various refractive index structures can affect the propagation and scattering of the radio waves. This can be achieved through theoretical and model studies. On the other hand, in order to carry out realistic theoretical studies, realistic models of the inhomogeneous structures of the atmospheric refractive index are needed. These are available only through observational data. Therefore the close interplays between theoretical and observational investigations are essential in making progress in this area. Some results on certain aspects of the problem are presented with emphasis on those aspects that may lead to new developments.

Liu, C. H.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Gravity-wave spectra in the atmosphere observed by MST radar, part 4.2B

A universal spectrum of atmospheric buoyancy waves is proposed based on data from radiosonde, Doppler navigation, not-wire anemometer and Jimsphere balloon. The possible existence of such a universal spectrum clearly will have significant impact on several areas in the study of the middle atmosphere dynamics such as the parameterization of sub-grid scale gravity waves in global circulation models; the transport of trace constituents and heat in the middle atmosphere, etc. Therefore, it is important to examine more global wind data with temporal and spatial resolutions suitable for the investigation of the wave spectra. Mesosphere-stratosphere-troposphere (MST) radar observations offer an excellent opportunity for such studies. It is important to realize that radar measures the line-of-sight velocity which, in general, contains the combination of the vertical and horizontal components of the wave-associated particle velocity. Starting from a general oblique radar observation configuration, applying the dispersion relation for the gravity waves, the spectrum for the observed fluctuations in the line-of-sight gravity-wave spectrum is investigated through a filter function. The consequence of the filter function on data analysis is discussed.

Scheffler, A. O.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Coding schemes for improving MST radar performance, part 7.1A

The performance of an mesosphere-stratosphere-troposphere (MST) radar can be characterized by its system sensitivity and its range resolution. The former enables Doppler velocities to be determined even in the presence of very weak structures; the latter permits study of the fine structure within a turbulent region. Coding of transmitted signals has as its aim an increase in the effective radar sensitivity or range resolution without an increase in the peak transmitted power. This is accomplished by spreading the power in the frequency domain, giving better range resolution, without reducing the pulse width. Two basic techniques are used to accomplish this frequency dispersion: (1) using a type of pseudorandom code for the phase or amplitude within a single pulse, or within a finite sequence of pulses; (2) to code the frequency of the transmitted signal in some way. The various possibilities are discussed and are compared with the pulse-coding methods.

Bowhill, S. A.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Sample interchange of MST radar data from the Urbana radar

As a first step in interchange of data from the Urbana mesosphere-stratosphere-troposphere (MST) radar, a sample tape has been prepared in 9-track 1600-bpi IBM format. It includes all Urbana data for April 1978 (the first month of operation of the radar). The 300-ft tape contains 260 h of typical mesospheric power and line-of-sight velocity data.

Bowhill, S. A.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Further developments of EISCAT as an MST radar

The principal capabilities of EISCAT as an MST radar were described. Since the VHF transmitter of the EISCAT system is not yet delivered, only the UHF system could be used for radar experiments. Considerable developments in the year 1983 have now strongly improved the reliability of the operations. Most of the experiments were and will be done to investigate the high latitude ionosphere and thermosphere, but some time was also devoted to observations of the lower and middle atmosphere, particularly during the MAP/WINE compaign.

Rottger, J.↗
NASA NTRS1986

A study of gravity-wave spectra in the troposphere and stratosphere at 5-min to 5-day periods with the Poker Flat MST radar

An analysis of frequency spectra at periods of about 5 days to 5 min from two 20-day sets of velocity measurements in the stratosphere and troposphere region obtained with the Poker Flat mesosphere-stratosphere-troposphere (MST) radar during January and June, 1984 is presented. A technique based on median filtering and averaged order statistics for automatic editing, smoothing and spectral analysis of velocity time series contaminated with spurious data points or outliers is outlined. The validity of this technique and its effects on the inferred spectral index was tested through simulation. Spectra obtained with this technique are discussed. The measured spectral indices show variability with season and height, especially across the tropopause. The discussion briefly outlines the need for obtaining better climatologies of velocity spectra and for the refinements of the existing theories to explain their behavior.

Bemra, R. S.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Mesospheric wave number spectra from Poker Flat MST radar measurements compared with gravity-wave model

The results of a comparison of mesospheric wind fluctuation spectra computed from radial wind velocity estimates made by the Poker Flat mesosphere-stratosphere-troposphere (MST) radar are compared with a gravity-wave model developed by VanZandt (1982, 1985). The principal conclusion of this comparison is that gravity waves can account for 80% of the mesospheric power spectral density.

Smith, S. A.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Progress in existing and planned MST radars

Radar systems are described which use two different wind measuring techniques: the partial-reflection drift technique and the mesosphere-stratosphere-troposphere (MST) or Doppler beam-swing radar technique. The advantages and disadvantages of each technique are discussed.

Vanzandt, T. E.↗