Multistatic Passive Weather Radar

Abstract

Practical and accurate estimation of three-dimensional wind fields is an ongoing challenge in radar meteorology. Multistatic (single transmitter / multiple receivers) radar architectures offer a cost effective solution for obtaining the multiple Doppler measurements necessary to achieve such estimates. In this work, the history and fundamental concepts of multistatic weather radar are reviewed. Several developments in multistatic weather radar enabled by recent technological progress, such as the widespread availability of high performance single-chip RF transceivers and the proliferation of phased array weather radars, are then presented. First, a network of compact, low-cost passive receiver prototypes is used to demonstrate a set of signal processing techniques that have been developed to enable transmitter / receiver synchronization through sidelobe radiation. Next, a pattern synthesis technique is developed which allows for the use of sidelobe whitening to mitigate velocity biases in multistatic radar systems. The efficacy of this technique is then demonstrated using a multistatic weather radar system simulator.