Reconfigurable Scanning Millimeter-wave Polarimetric Radar for Airborne Observation of Clouds

This Phase I SBIR project describes our plan to develop a compact scanning polarimetric cloud radar for observations of sea spray from a variety of airborne platforms. Our effort will focus on the design of a compact, lightweight W-band polarimetric scanning radar system that will be suitable to operate onboard the NOAA P3 or NOAA/NASA Altair UAV aircraft. Phase I design activities will include developing a compact, pressurized RF unit enclosure, and designing miniaturized circuits of the radar intermediate frequency section in order to stay within the envelop of a available space, weight and power. We also plan to develop a high dynamic range data system based on a commercially available digital receiver hosted in a compact embedded PC. The resultant design will be considerably lighter and more compact than existing high power cloud radars, without sacrificing overall performance.