Weather Radar Processor for Rapid Scanning Tactical Radars

This Phase II SBIR proposal describes a weather radar processor that will be used to add a weather surveillance mode to existing military radar systems. Existing tactical radars, such as the TPQ-37 and MPQ-64, are highly sensitive search and track radarswhose basic operational parameters are ideally suited for weather surveillance applications. During Phase I, we plan to work with engineers from the radar manufacturer to design one or more weather surveillance modes for the TPQ-37 and MPQ-64. A customradar signal processor will be designed to extract reflectivity and Doppler data from the analog output of the radars. This data will be merged with antenna scanning, time stamp and geo-location information to accurately display the output data in worldcoordinates. Recurring and non-recurring costs to modify the radars for weather surveillance applications will be determined. The pulse-to-pulse scanning agility of these radars makes them especially powerful tools for the study of rapidly developingconvective weather systems that are poorly characterized by conventional PPI-scanning weather radars.BENEFITS: Commercial applications include modification of existing and new TPQ-37 and MPQ-64 radars for tactical and civilian weather surveillanceapplications. The radar processor developed through this SBIR can be readily modified for use with other civilian weather radars.