J. Wurman et al., DESIGN OF A BISTATIC DUAL-DOPPLER RADAR FOR RETRIEVING VECTOR WINDS USING ONE TRANSMITTER AND A REMOTE LOW-GAIN PASSIVE RECEIVER, Proceedings of the IEEE, 82(12), 1994, pp. 1861-1872
A bistatic dual-Doppler network consisting of an existing single trans
mitting pencil-beam weather radar and a remotely located, nontransmitt
ing, passive bistatic, receiver with a low-gain antenna was constructe
d and tested during 1993. High-quality dual-Doppler vector winds were
retrieved from this system. The windfields were compared to those coll
ected with a traditional two-transmitter dual-Doppler system. Several
interesting engineering challenges relating to frequency and timing sy
nchronization were resolved in order to retrieve successfully Doppler
velocities at a remote bistatic site. Frequency synchronization was ac
hieved by using extremely stable local oscillators, linked by both Glo
bal Positioning Satellite (GPS) signals and transmitter sidelobe coupl
ing. Both methods provided the necessary one part in 10(9) coherence n
ecessary for calculating accurate Doppler velocities. Timing/gating sy
nchronization with submicrosecond accuracy was achieved by using local
oscillators at each site linked with GPS and sidelobe coupling. The s
uccessful test of this system demonstrates that inexpensive and practi
cal bistatic multiple-Doppler networks can be deployed. These systems
can provide three-dimensional vector winds for a number of purposes in
research, aviation, media, weather prediction, education, meteorologi
cal modeling, and severe weather detection.