Mitigation of the Effects of the Ionosphere on UEWR

UHF radars at high latitude observe significant perturbations in measurements of amplitude, phase, range, and Doppler, caused by ionospheric disturbances. Without mitigation of these effects, there is no doubt that the natural ionosphere is a major issue in the performance of the important radar functions (detection, track, classification, intercept support) of the Thule Upgraded Early Warning radar (UEWR). This work will develop signal processing techniques to mitigate the effects of the perturbed polar region ionosphere on the radar track function. This will be accomplished through the development and application of a high fidelity desktop simulation that includes the combined effects of both large and small scale ionospheric structures. These efforts will be rooted in real-world data, namely that taken as part of the MDA Ionospheric Data Collection (IDC) program and also polar region measurements of total electron content using two-frequency (Transit) satellite beacon data observed at a receiver stationed near Thule.