High Fidelity Environmental Model for Surface Radar Training

Modeling of geographic and atmospheric environmental effects in radar training system is important. However, such capability is lacked in existing training system. High fidelity radar simulation tools with environmental effect models are not suitable for real-time training because the electromagnetic simulation cannot be accomplished in real-time. Intelligent Automation, Inc. (IAI) proposes to develop a high-fidelity environmental model tool for real-time multiple surface ship radar training. This tool first builds a database consisting of channel impulse responses (CIR) of multiple radars in typical terrain and natural environment using our in-house developed RF channel model tool off-line. During training, the user specifies the scenario using natural language-style inputs such as geographical location and season. The tool converts these input to quantitative parameters such as topography, land radar reflectivity, predicted atmospheric conditions, sandstorms, and sea states. The tool will generate the CIR corresponding to that scenario through interpolation using data in the CIR database. This interpolation and lookup table mechanism will be run in real-time. Feasibility for achieving the Navy"s performance goals will be demonstrated in Phase II and a prototype will be implemented in Phase II.