Mitigation of the effects of the ionosphere on UEWR

Propagation Research Associates, Inc., (PRA) proposes to utilize its unique capabilities in atmospheric effects characterization, atmospheric effects mitigation, and track processing to characterize and improve tracking and object classification under conditions of ionospheric scintillation for polar Upgraded Early Warning Radars (UEWR). To this end, PRA will implement a numerical simulation of radar signal propagation through scintillation within its existing radar simulation tool developed under MDA Contracts W9113M-07-C-0052 and W9113M-08-C-0149. PRA will partner with JPL to create a climatological model of polar ionospheric scintillation over the duration of a solar cycle using data sources including radar and GPS data. PRA will also investigate applying turbulence mitigation algorithms that were successfully applied to tropospheric turbulence under the above contracts to the particular effects of ionospheric scintillation on UEWR performance. In Phase II, PRA will benchmark its radar simulation against data from the Thule UHF radar and then use that simulation and the ionospheric climatology to evaluate the performance of the radar"s current tracking algorithms over the course of one solar cycle. In addition, PRA will apply its ionospheric mitigation algorithms to Thule data and determine the improvement that could be expected in track initiation, track, target identification, and handover functions.